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Prairie Fresh celebrates world champion barbecue pitmasters to wrap up Pork Month

October 31, 2023 | News

MERRIAM, Kan. – To wrap up Pork Month in October, Prairie Fresh® celebrated recently crowned world champion competition barbecue teams Uncle Pig’s Barbecue Pit, Janky Leg BBQ and Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe. All three teams won world championship barbecue competitions this year with Prairie Fresh pork products.

Most recently, Uncle Pig’s Barbecue Pit, Paulsboro, N.J., won The Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue on Oct. 14 in Lynchburg, Tenn. Led by head pitmaster Ercole Chila, the team scored a perfect 180 in the rib category with Prairie Fresh St. Louis-style spareribs at the competition.

Janky Leg BBQ from Benton, Ill., was crowned the American Royal World Series of Barbecue® Open Contest World Champion in early October. The team competed with Prairie Fresh pork ribs and butts in the world’s largest barbecue competition.

In May, Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe won the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest with Prairie Fresh USA Prime® loin backribs. Pitmasters Shane McBride and John David Wheeler led their team to become the first rib champion to win the grand championship in more than 20 years.

“We are truly honored to have three world champion teams compete with Prairie Fresh products. We’ve recognized each team on our Prairie Fresh Pit Crew Honor Roll and wanted to give them a special shout-out during Pork Month for their accomplishments,” says David Eaheart, Prairie Fresh senior director of communications and brand marketing. “We’re so glad to share our love for barbecue with these Prairie Fresh Pit Crew teams as they win on the biggest stages in competition barbecue.”

So far this year, the Prairie Fresh Pit Crew Honor Roll has had more than 600 inductions recognizing teams receiving a Grand Championship, 1st place pork or a 1st place rib call at U.S.-sanctioned barbecue competitions using Prairie Fresh products. Of the 600-plus inductions, 125 have been inducted for grand champion.

At the Jack Daniel’s barbecue competition, Prairie Fresh sponsored the Champion’s Dinner featuring 2021 Jack Daniel’s World Championship Barbecue Invitational Grand Champion and Prairie Fresh Brand Ambassador Brad Leighninger of Gettin’ Basted. Among the many delicious dishes served to more than 100 guests, he prepared a Prairie Fresh USA Prime® smoked boneless pork steak.

At the American Royal Barbecue, Prairie Fresh was the presenting sponsor of the Open Contest rib category and awarded additional prize money to teams competing with Prairie Fresh ribs receiving a Top 25 Open Contest rib category call. Smokin’ Outlaws (1st place), Going Yard BBQ (3rd place) and Sweet Smoke Q (4th place) received perfect 180 scores with Prairie Fresh St. Louis Style spareribs. In addition, Prairie Fresh made a matching donation to Operation BBQ Relief and the American Royal Association on each team’s behalf totaling $1,900. Prairie Fresh has supported OBR with pork products for its disaster relief deployments since 2015 and has provided pork for more than 3.9 million meals.

About Prairie Fresh
Prairie Fresh is the brand of a uniquely connected food system relentlessly seeking a better way to produce wholesome pork by purposely connecting every step between its farms in the Midwest and Great Plains and family tables around the world. Prairie Fresh pork is produced, sold and marketed by Seaboard Foods.
For more information, visit prairiefresh.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram @prairiefresh.

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