What's on the Menu?

Food is undoubtedly a big part of the race experience. More so, getting nutrition into your meat sack is critical for a successful race. We spend a lot of time trying to decide what foods to offer at each event, and we actually look at eight different values when we are deciding on aid station menus. We get a lot of requests for different things; sometimes it's an "ah-ha" moment, and often it's just not practical based on our requirements. Here are the eight values we consider when selecting food options.

Satisfaction

Basically, will people like it? We want to be sure we have stuff that is easy to consume and palatable, as well as having broad appeal. When we try something new, we always assess after the race to see if people actually enjoyed it. If there was a lot left, it means it was either not popular, hard to serve, or people just didn't know it was an option. Usually it's the former, and it gets taken off the menu for future races.

Racer expectations are changing as well. I started competing in adventure races in the early 2000s; at that time, if you wanted food, you brought it with you. There was nothing at aid stations at all. Then, with ultramarathons, snack foods crept into the offering at aid stations. Now, we get a lot more requests for substantial food, so we try to add what is reasonable while balancing that with the other values here. 

Perishable/Non-Perishable

We are working almost exclusively off-grid. That means some foods that are perishable need to be kept cool or frozen. Others, like fruit, can be kept outside, but they do have a limited shelf life. Watermelons in the sun on a hot day are going to go manky in a hurry. We take food safety very seriously, and we will not send out something unless we know we have the resources to keep it fresh. 

We have small camp freezers that we use for things like meatballs, which need to stay frozen until they are used. We struggle with keeping foods cool, so if it cannot be frozen, we tend to avoid it. That would include things like cheese, sandwich meat, and eggs. While any individual can chuck a bunch of fresh food in a cooler for a camping trip, we are bound by provincial health regulations, which means storing specific foods within a mandated temperature range. 

Sometimes people ask, "why can XYZ Ultra offer this food, and you don't?". The short answer is that they are probably not following the health regulations. Or maybe they have the facilities on site to store and handle food. It's rarely an apples to apples comparison. We have had extensive discussions with AHS (Alberta Health Services) inspectors, and we have a good understanding of the requirements. While we love foods like homemade cookies, they are actually not technically allowed, according to AHS, because you cannot verify how they were made, how the ingredients were handled, and it probably was not prepared in a commercial kitchen. :/ Ultimately, do not cut corners on safety, so we tend to lean into what we know is acceptable rather than throwing caution to the wind.

Waste

We hate generating garbage, but it is a part of any large group activity, especially when you're serving food. So we try to make choices that help us reduce waste. It is not necessarily just about packaging, either. Here are the things we consider:

• Does the product use excess packaging?
• What is the risk of the wrapper being dropped on the trail?
• If the package is opened, do we have to throw away the rest of it at the end of the race? 
• Is the item large enough that someone will eat only a bit then throw the rest away?

You'd probably be surprised by the foods that are bad for waste. Pickles are a hard one, for instance; once opened, if you cannot keep them refrigerated on site, they are pretty much dead by the time they get back to the warehouse. It doesn't matter if someone only took one pickle, we cannot keep it. 

Garbage on the trails is a big problem, and we work to stop that. This is also why we stopped using cups at our checkpoints many years ago; less garbage out in the woods. In 2019 we announced that we would move from individually wrapped foods to bulk... then covid happened and everyone became hyper-aware about food safety again. So there is also a trade-off between values like packaging and hygiene. 

Allergies/Restrictions

A lot of people have dietary restrictions, and we try to be respectful of that while still offering a lot of choice in foods. We do not want to stop having foods like peanut butter, but we are highly aware that cross-contamination could be fatal for someone with a nut allergy. So we try to make it highly visible and also avoid foods with hidden allergens. We also have to consider that more people are avoiding gluten, whether it's due to celiac disease or simply a dietary choice. 

We are seeing an increasing number of vegetarians at events, and we always make an effort to ensure every station has food items that do not contain animal byproducts. 

Availability

Sometimes foods are just hard to find in the quantities we need. Two years ago, we could not find mini chocolate bars, which are a staple. A few years ago, we also could not find Hi-Chews anywhere, which are another snack that is often requested. So we adapt the best we can when this happens. If a requested food is ridiculously expensive and hard to get in a reasonable quantity, we are unlikely to add it to the menu. It really depends on how many of something we need at a particular event. 

Variety

On top of looking at allergies, dietary restrictions, and availability, we want to have a few choices for you to eat. While some people will eat one thing for an entire race, most people feel pretty sick of it after a while. 

Not every food is for everyone. As mentioned above, we know that peanut butter is a no-go for some, and while meatballs in sauce are really popular at our main stations, a vegetarian will not eat that. So we will always have an alternative to these foods. 

Food Handling

As I said above, we are working off grid most of the time. That means no facilities and we have to have the right tools on site to prepare food. For this reason, we avoid things that require a lot of handling. Sandwiches go nasty if kept in a cooler for 8+ hours, but preparing them on site means having all of the food handling tools, as well as a wash station, food-grade surface cleaners, and appropriate food storage. 

This also includes transportation. Have you ever tried driving down a cut line with 300L of water and 45 bottles of soda? Yikes! Avocados may be the king of fruits (yes, it's a fruit), but they also are really hard to keep stable when they are being loaded into a pickup truck, bounced down a country road, then kept outside or in a cooler for hours on end. Then, when you go to serve them, you need all of those food handling tools again. 

As mentioned, our goal is minimal handling. Surprisingly, things like meatballs are really easy because they just have to be put into a sauce, then served with a spoon. Burgers, which we only have at a couple of events, do require more attention from the aid station volunteers, but they go straight from frozen to cooked and can be served with one utensil. These hot foods do, however, need to be maintained at specific temperatures. 

Hygiene

Definitely not the least of our considerations is hygiene. OK, let's just say it... y'all have probably stuck your hand in a candy jar or chip bowl without washing first. I know I often see it at races, and a part of me dies inside each time. As I mentioned above, we were moving to foods with less individual wrapping, but we had to think about that again during Covid. 

So we are talking about foods that do not require a lot of handling by the person who is going to be accessing them. If we have tongs, will people use them? For chips and candy, not so much. For pickles, it's unlikely that anyone is sticking their hand in a jar, so tongs are usually enough. With hot foods, they are typically served to the individual, so the chance of them touching someone else's food is low. 

Part of the solution is to have a mix of both individually wrapped and open foods. People who are not concerned can dive their digits in and brave the DNA of others. For those who are more cautious (and I am one of them), we'll have something that is individually portioned. 

Looking Head

Our food choices will shift a bit from year to year and race to race. All I can say is that we are watching what people are eating, we learn from their comments, and we try our best to have good food options. 

So that's a broad overview. Now, if you really want to geek out, look at the following infographics about how we evaluate different foods.

These graphs are definitely somewhat subjective, but they are based on our experience 20+ years of managing races. I have randomly picked six foods to evaluate. 

Meatballs in sauce is always a favourite. It's not the easiest thing to have out there as the packages have to be kept frozen, then they have to be cooked to a certain temperature, but they come pre-cooked, there is little waste, they are easy to get in bulk, they enhance the variety of the station, and they do not require a lot of handling. 

Every aid station also has candy, and it tends to hit high marks on most of our eight values. The waste component is actually fairly minimal, even with individually wrapped candy, as long as people are eating it in the aid station. 

Everyone asks for boiled potatoes, but hardly anyone eats them. We throw out about 90% of what is made. If they are cooked on site, we can control the waste a bit better, but that means a lot of handling. If they come pre-cut, they need to be kept frozen or they go funky and discoloured. All in all, it's one of the foods that I'd love to have more of, but it mostly ends up in the garbage. 

Watermelon is almost always wildly popular, but it is one of those things that we either have too much or too little of. If it is a hot day, it disappears. If it is cold, we scramble to give them away. They do require a lot of prep on site (they cannot be cut up in advance as they go soft). All in all, the popularity outweighs most of the other factors. Most people will eat it, and there are low rates of people who have allergies. 

We always get requests for cheese sandwiches or grilled cheese. This requires fats for frying, extra pans, extra clean-up supplies, and a lot of handling. Cheese cannot be frozen but it has to be kept around 3˚C; not easy to do when you are in the woods for hours at a time. The hygiene side of it is good, as long as it is given to the person eating it, and it is not just left out. All in all, the food safety concerns really outweigh the benefits, and we are more inclinded to provide other fresh/hot options. 

Pickles are also really popular, and getting more so each year. They are generally great for transport and storage up until the time they are opened. It's a bit sad to open a bin a day or two after the race and find a pickle jar opened, but only one or two have been eaten, because we cannot keep it after that. Still, they are a staple of our races. Carting 40kg of them down a country road is always the hard part.