`These little guys are the fastest-growing item in the produce industry,” Mike Rempe said earlier this week, holding up a 3-ounce bag of carrot nuggets.
Rempe may have been exaggerating. He’s the director of produce merchandising for C.H. Robinson Co. in Eden Prairie, Minn., marketers of The Fresh 1 packaged vegetables. But still, branded fresh produce, especially ready-made packaged salads, is a very hot trend if what was being shown last week at the annual Food Marketing Institute show at McCormick Place is any indication.
Packaged vegetables satisfy America’s desire for freshness and convenience: The carrots, for instance, are neatly pared and sized just right for kids to pack for lunch or snacks, and the salads come in various mixtures of lettuces and greens, including raddichio, arugula and endive.
“It’s consumer acceptance of a packaged fresh-produce product that has made the difference,” said Neil Milburn, vice president of Marketing for River Ranch produce company in Salinas, Calif. Included in River Ranch’s line are four fresh versions of “Salads For One” that include the greens, a packet of salad dressing, a plastic fork and even a napkin.
There’s another factor in this trend: shelf stability. Technology has produced plastic films that can be customized for different types of produce. Some films keep oxygen out, for instance. Another lets a little air penetrate, while others hold the contents in a “pillow pack” full of nitrogen.
“It has gotten very technical,” said Gary Tice, vice president of retail sales for Ready Pac Produce of Irwindale, Calif. Under ideal conditions-a steady 34 degrees-a bag of salad (or broccoli slaw or other cut vegetable) can stay very fresh for three weeks, perhaps more, he said.
A least a dozen large companies have started assembling their own veggie packs and salads, including TKO Farms Inc. of Sausalito, Calif., which puts together exotic collections of greens called Rave, all of which are organically grown.
Not all this effort is just to make the busy cook’s life easier, however. The 3-ounce carrot packet is about 30 cents ($1.60 per pound), a 6-ounce bag of greens from TKO is about $2.70 and the 8-ounce River Ranch Caesar Salad For One is $1.99. Convenience has its price.
Some companies are going even further. Frieda’s Finest, the Los Angeles company that pioneered the distribution of packaged, fresh exotic produce, now offers jars of shredded celery root in a vinegar brine. Sales representative Bess Petlak said it is “selling like crazy”-for $2.49 for 12-ounce jar-presumably to those who eat a lot of celery root. And Christopher Ranch of Gilroy, Calif., is marketing 3-ounce bags of peeled garlic for about $1 “to save cooks time,” said Jim Provost, East Coast division manager. “We put it in a tumbler and blow it with hot air to remove the skin.”
Looking for a fresher tomato? Who isn’t? Try the “Trostomaten” from Holland, a cluster of medium tomatoes that still are hanging on the vine. That allows them to be harvested later than the common supermarket variety, said Willem Tom, a representative of the Netherlands’ Central Bureau of Fruit and Vegetable Auctions.
Then there is the Flavr-Savr tomato at the Calgene Inc. booth. That’s the long-awaited and much-discussed genetically altered tomato that doesn’t rot. But you won’t find it yet. “We’re still awaiting FDA approval,” said sales manager Janis Berry. Instead she is promoting the company’s MacGregor’s tomatoes, which stay “nine days longer on the vine.”
This year’s FMI show, which ran through Wednesday and was projected to draw more than 34,000 visitors, featured 1,300 exhibits, including many from other countries. Mexico again was prominent, but there also were booths featuring supermarket foods and merchandise from Argentina, Korea, India, Chile and the Netherlands. Many U.S. exhibitors were focusing on the export market as well as the domestic distribution.
The exhibit floor also left no doubt that rotisserie chicken is in. At least half a dozen companies were demonstrating how grocers could be roasting and selling their own, just like KFC and Boston Chicken. Visitors to the show, many of whom are buyers for supermarkets, scanned thousands of food and equipment products on display, ranging from doggie snacks to duck pate. And they were treated to a smorgasbord of chips, dips, candies, beers, coffees, soft drinks, frozen desserts and meaty nibbles of every sort to entice them to leave their name and number.
Following are a few more samples of some products you could be seeing in your supermarket in the next few months:
– You can prepare a great roast for your family or guests and you don’t have to mess around finding the right recipe. Pasqualichio Brothers Inc. of Clarks Summit, Pa., is selling boneless, preseasoned lamb, beef, chicken, veal, pork and pork shoulder roasts “netted” and ready to cook. Just remove them from their vacuum packaging and put them in the oven: You’re an instant chef.
“These are recipes from my grandfather,” said Michael Pasqualichio, who said the roasts are $4 to $5 a pound in the meat case at some Chicago supermarkets.
– Salsa is still is No. 1 in condiment sales, but you don’t have to buy it in a jar. You can make your own, sort of. With 100% Natural Simple Salsa mix from Ball Brand Consumer Products Co. of Muncie, Ind., you add your own fresh or canned tomatoes to make about 1 1/2 cups of salsa. The 1-ounce package is 89 cents and should be in stores by January.
– You say you like Nabisco’s SnackWell devil’s food cookies, the fat-free sensation that grocers can’t keep on their shelves. Interbake Foods of Richmond, Va., a private-label company, soon will be supplying a similar version (with just 1 gram of fat per two cookies) to Dominick’s Finer Foods to sell under its own name, said Interbake’s central division sales manager Ronald J. Leggero. The company also makes fat-free apple fig bars for the private-label market.
– The government’s new voluntary nutrition label regulations for fresh meats, seafoods and produce has been a boon to some companies, especially Insignia Systems Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn. The company has developed an IBM-compatible computer program for supermarkets to produce Nutrition Facts labels (as well as price and ingredient labels) for green peppers, T-bone steaks, swordfish, chocolate cake or almost any fresh food. The $2,500 program has a database to compute nutritionals and the ability to set up a full-color label in a variety of sizes that can be printed in seconds, said marketing manager Gary Schneider. Now there’s no excuse for not having those turnips labeled.
– First it was Boboli bread-great for making pizzas-and now it’s focaccia, the new Italian bread rage. Piemonte Foods Inc. of Greenville, S.C., is marketing 6- and 12- inch rounds of focaccia in vacuum packages that will last almost a month without refrigeration. The 6-inchers are two for $1.89 and the 12-inch rounds are $2.89, said William Wood, vice president of marketing. They are not yet in Chicago, “but we hope they will be,” he said.
If you want to keep your focaccia to last longer, Cole’s Quality Foods Inc. of Muskegon, Mich., has a 16-ounce partly baked frozen loaf in plain and cheese & herb versions. Just heat and serve. It should be in Jewel and Dominick’s by July 1 for about $2.30.
– The instant-soup-cup competition rages, with several companies making all manner of rice, pasta and legume combinations for microwave meals in a couple of minutes.
“But if you want something with a dramatically better flavor and texture, try one of our marriages of pasta and beans,” said Ann McBeth, vice president of marketing for W.J. Clark & Co., a Chicago company that makes four freeze-dried combos of carbohydrates and proteins. “They take a little longer to cook (about 12 minutes) but what you get is much more satisfying. It’s our best-selling product,” she said. A pack, which is enough for two, is about $2.60.
– Morris Reisman was camped out at a small booth, trying to attract buyers for his Nature’s Way Banana Keeper, which consists of two cleverly designed pieces of plastic that lock together and suspend a clump of bananas in the air. “It keeps the fruit from bruising,” said Reisman, president of Pro Sales Industries Inc. of Orange, Calif. He said that unlike other banana suspension devices-of which there are several-his banana keeper is sturdy, will not tip over under heavy load and holds the fruit high enough to keep it from touching the counter. It can be yours for $4 or $5 dollars if any local stores decide to sell them.
