Fayetteville startup’s ground beef product up for national industry award

An innovative ground beef product marketed by Fayetteville startup Zephyr Foods is being considered for a significant award in the natural products industry.

1 Source is a finalist in the Natural Products Expo East 2019 NEXTY Awards. 1 Source is the only Arkansas-based product among several entries. It is being recognized in the category of Best New Meat, Dairy or Animal-Based Product.

“Our 1 Source product is the answer to consumer demand for better, more traceable products — especially with ground beef,” Zephyr Foods co-founder and CEO Michael Turley said in a statement. “Most commercial packages contain bits of up to 1,000 different cows from multiple countries. That’s not the case with 1 Source. It’s a more reliable and great-tasting product, and we’re honored it’s being recognized as a NEXTY Award finalist. This is big for us.”

For the 2019 Expo East awards, judges narrowed down more than 400 nominated products from across the country to a pool of 62 finalists across 22 categories with only three finalists per category.

In addition to each package being 100% traceable to a single animal, 1 Source ground beef is sourced from 100% Black Angus beef born and raised on family-owned farms. Each animal has been humanely handled from farm to harvest, Turley said.

Award winners will be announced Sept. 12 in Baltimore.

Zephyr Foods was founded in 2017 by Turley, Milo Graff and Kevin Potter. They are all former Tyson Foods employees.