Yesterday, I hosted a fun event at City Treehouse for several of my blogging friends for TrueCookPlus. It was so great to meet Elise, Ellen and Sherri who is a contributor at Momtrends and as always it was nice to laugh and small with some familiar friends (Esti, Jessica, Linda, Lisa, Maria, Mitch, Monica, Ofelia and Heidi). You can see the pictures from the event on the slideshow below:
We had gathered to learn about TrueCookPlus, a new microwave technology that combines ease of use with food safety. It’s a pretty neat piece of technology but what intrigued me the most was the background story. Steve Schaffel, an entrepreneur wh o helped to develop this product, spoke with us for a bit. He shared how he had no intention of getting into the microwave business. Rather, he became involved because he wanted to help his nephew (who has cerebral palsy) to become more independent by preparing his own meals in the microwave. He connected his nephew’s father with an engineer who had been working on the product and the business developed from there. Serendipity?
Anyway, Steve then went on to explain a little bit about the TrueCookPlus technology. Basically, it compensate for a variety of things including wattage, altitude and voltage differences. If you’re like me, your initial thought might be, “So what?”. Well, there’s a lot of scientific reasons for why these factors are so important, but the two simple things that stood out to me were taste and safety.
Food just tastes better when it is cooked to the perfect temperature. (I laughed when Steve mentioned that it’s like having a chef in the microwave!) For instance, one of the foods that we tested the microwave with TrueCookPlus technology on was Celeste frozen pizza. Several of us moms admitted that we feed our kids that on occasion. I do. I usually cook it in the oven though, because it doesn’t taste right/I don’t like the texture when I try to cook them in the microwave option. Well, to my pleasant surprise, the pizza that was cooked in this microwave actually tasted really good. Since my sons are the picky pizza eaters, I had them try it…and they both wanted more. Score!
Safety is even more important. Did you know that there are 75 million reported cases of food poisoning a year? That is a lot…especially when you consider that food poisoning maily effects babies and the elderly. Well, this technology can help reduce the cases that are caused by undercooking food, because it is designed to heat the food to a degree that kills E.coli and Salmonella.
Currently Kenmore and LG are the brands that are using the technology in some of their microwaves priced at $119 – $139. It has been so successful that they are expanding the number of models that will come with the TrueCookPlus technology included (i.e. it will be in all Kenmore Elite microwaves including over the range microwave ovens).
Basically, once you have a microwave with TrueCookPlus technology included in it, you simply input the code (that is currently found on 120 food items) and the microwave will cook the item to perfection. FYI, there will be 220 coded products within the next three months and even more going forward. In addition, on the TrueCookPlus website, there is a “food code” section where you can find the code for a variety of frozen and packaged food items that don’t carrry the code (yet) on their packaging.
Overall, I think that TrueCookPlus is a helpful piece of new technology….especially if you eat a lot of frozen and packaged food. So, when you are thinking of replacing your old microwave, keep a look out for the TrueCookPlus labeling!
At the end of the event, I was given $50 in coupons for Aunt Jemima frozen breakfast products (waffles/pancakes/etc.). Since I was paid to host the event, I’ll give the coupons to one of my readers. Simply let me know what you currently cook in the microwave in the “Comments” section below. I will pick a random winner at the end of the month.
