
Gov. Susana Martinez will announce the New Mexico Certified Chile™ trademark program at a launch party Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. at The Range Restaurant in Bernalillo.
The Range is the first New Mexico restaurant to sign up for the program.
The first grower to sign up for the program is Penn Farms in Luna County, the first food company is Bueno Foods of Albuquerque, and the first grocer is John Brooks Supermart, with locations around the state.
Consumers can find these and other growers, products, retailers and restaurants that use New Mexico Certified Chile at www.getnmchile.com.
With the creation of this program, New Mexico Certified Chile will join other well-known branded products such as Vidalia Onions™, 100% Pure Florida™ orange juice, California Olive Oil™ and Idaho Potatoes™ as certification programs that support signature crops of a state or region.
Gov. Martinez said “Red or green?” is a question New Mexicans answer every day at breakfast, lunch and dinner, but, she said, the one question no one should ever have to ask is, “Is this chile really New Mexican?”
In April of 2011, Gov. Martinez signed into law the New Mexico Chile Advertising Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any product as New Mexico chile unless actually grown here. The New Mexico Certified Chile program builds on that legislation.