State Fair vendor won’t use syringes in doughnut treat

Published 10:52 am Saturday, July 13, 2019

MPR News Staff

MPR News/90.1 FM

A new food planned for this year’s Minnesota State Fair promised plastic syringes filled with cream, custard and jam that consumers could inject into a doughnut treat.

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But the pushback over the plastic waste that could generate has led to change.

State Fair officials on Friday said the vendor — The Hangar — will instead serve its Wingwalker treat in a compostable tray with three compartments that can be used for dunking the doughnut holes in Bavarian cream, chocolate custard and Minnesota lingonberry jam.

Fair officials in mid-June released the annual list of “official new foods” for the 12-day food fest that opens Aug. 22 and runs through Labor Day. The fair said it responded after the public raised questions about the potential plastic waste.

More than 3,300 people signed an online petition calling on the fair and the vendor to stop the plan because of the waste as well as the optics of “syringes being cool” and containing treats.

“We understand the impact food packaging has on the environment, and The Hangar, along with the fair, has decided that plastic syringes will not be used as part of the Wingwalker Donut Flight,” the fair said in a statement Friday.