Lending a Hand in the Kitchen

July 2001

A glance at the past century’s food-development milestones suggests an industry driven by consumer demands for convenience, particularly interest in receiving assistance in the kitchen. Convenience, however, is a dynamic term that seems to change with each generation.

It could be argued that one of the original food products designed to ease the burden of preparing meals was the 1930 debut of Wonder® Bread, the first packaged, sliced loaf of bread. Mom and the corner baker no longer were required to knead, punch and proof dough on a regular basis. More realistically, it was foods like 1937’s Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, 1948’s Pillsbury Cake Mix, 1958’s Rice-A-Roni®, 1965’s Kraft Shake ‘N Bake and the ultimate, 1970’s Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, that appealed to the past century’s time-crunched consumers.

However, today’s consumers want more. Fewer consumers know how to cook, or are willing to take the time to learn. Consumers also are well-traveled, and thus desire foods with global flair. Because home is still the preferred place to eat dinner, product developers are busy designing a new generation of speed-scratch meal components to make it easier to prepare a dinner with a hint of home-cooked flair.

Scratch “from scratch”
At the January 2001 Specialty Food Distributors and Manufacturers Association Annual Conference and Trade Show, Jon Hauptman, vice president, Willard Bishop Consulting Ltd., Barrington, IL, explained to attendees that consumers are looking for quick, creative ways to cook dinner for their families at home. “Homecooked” no longer means “from scratch.” Research indicates that 60% of families eat at home five to seven times per week, with 44% of weekday meals prepared in 30 minutes or less. Interestingly, 60% of the home-prepared meals do not involve a side dish and 69% of meal-preparers are looking for ways out of the “recipe rut,” he said.

In fact, in most households, home cooking simply means a meal prepared at home. This meal may be made using a variety of convenient shortcuts, such as frozen prepared meals, boxed meal kits, ready-to-grill meats and precut fresh vegetables.

The Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI) report, “Trends in the United States — Consumer Attitudes & the Supermarket, 2001,” states that 12% of the 1,000 consumers polled use “heat and eat foods” three or more times per week; 26% do so once or twice per week. Shortcuts, such as bagged salads, precut and cleaned vegetables and marinated meats, are used three or more times per week by 17% of consumers, as are boxed, frozen or canned meals, which require some assembly or the addition of fresh ingredients.

FMI reports that cooking from scratch more often is done by non-working women or women who work less than 20 hours per week, people in the 50- to 64-year-old age range and Hispanic shoppers. Cooking from scratch is correlated to age: the older the shopper, the more likely they are to cook from scratch. In fact, FMI data shows that one-third of shoppers under age 40 cook from scratch less than once per week.

It’s this type of information that’s keeping food product developers busy in the lab. The new generation of speed-scratch components includes refrigerated, frozen and shelf-stable products, and has expanded beyond side dishes and casseroles to include marinades, specialty oils, meat rubs and exotic spices.

Fresh from the farm
The produce aisle has experienced the most activity in the development of convenience foods because consumers know they should be eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, but don’t want to take the time to prepare produce. This is why in-store salad bars can command per-pound prices between $3 and $5 for items as simple as chopped iceberg lettuce, diced celery and cubed melon.

Value-added, fresh-cut salad is one of the fastest growing segments in the grocery store. Today’s bagged salads are more than lettuce. Salad kits contain separately packaged ingredients, such as cheese, croutons and bacon bits. Value-added salads include descriptors such as “European Blend,” “Field Greens” and “Greener Selection.”

It’s even simpler to get a more exotic variety. Los Angeles-based Melissa’s/ World Variety Produce Inc., recently launched a first-of-its-kind for the produce department. Melissa’s Laptop Salads are ready-to-eat, straight out of the package in four restaurant-style flavors: Asian soy, spinach, Caesar and grilled veggie with components such as grilled tofu, white rice and grilled organic eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini. Packages even contain a fork and napkin. “From concept to finished product, it took about 10 months to develop the line,” explains Robert Schueller, assistant marketing director. “Freshness is key to the salads, which only have a 10-day shelf life. In fact, the salads are made only after the retailer places an order. We do not inventory any of this product in our warehouse because of the shelf life, quality and sensitivity of the components.”

The value-added produce department provides more than convenient salads. For many years, foodservice operators have been buying ingredients such as pre-diced onions and now consumers are able to enjoy cooking with onions without tears. Diced onions and celery, as well as shredded carrots and cabbage, are some of the more popular vegetables that manufacturers are offering consumers in convenient, ready-to-use-, in-recipe form. Fresh stir-fry blends also are popular.

Fresh vegetables do not need to be merchandised in the produce department. The No. 1 side dish in America — potatoes — partners nicely with added-value time-savers, such as marinated chicken breasts and precooked baby back ribs.

Purely Supreme Foods LLC, Reno, NV, is having great success with its line of fresh, partially cooked potatoes. Ed Fong, vice president sales and marketing, leads the charge in designing new ways to cut, cook and package products that make the consumer’s life easier when it comes to meal preparation. “We use a new cooking technology and a patented packaging process to produce a convenience product that holds flavor, texture and nutrition better than anything out there,” he explains. This vacuum-packed process retains quality, and extends shelf life of the fresh, never-frozen products.

Fresh, partially prepared potatoes that consumers finish in their kitchen are a natural evolution of bagged salads. PurelySupreme offers Idaho-grown potato items, such as oven-ready Cheddar crusted diced potatoes, microwave-ready country home-style mashed potatoes and picnic-ready, fresh-toss classic potato salad, which includes diced potatoes and dressing. “These products offer restaurant-quality dining in about 10 minutes,” adds Fong. The company obtains a 35-day shelf life for nine of the 10 potato side dishes. The mashed product has a 65-day shelf life. “The products must always be refrigerated and should never be frozen,” he adds.

MAP-ping out a strategy
What’s key to any of these prepared vegetables is modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). “Although the MAP market is beginning to mature, and both processors and consumers are becoming more familiar with the packaging, we expect to see growth in the fresh fruits and vegetables and home-meal replacement segments,” says Debbie Benjamin, food support manager for the food and beverage lab, Praxair Inc., Burr Ridge, IL. “We work with both barrier and breathable packaging films, depending on the product being packaged. The breathability feature is especially important for fresh produce, which needs to respire at a controlled, slowed-down rate to increase shelf life.”

MAP has three principal components, explains Benjamin. The first is that gases must be supplied in the right mixture and the right quantity. Second, it’s important to have applications knowledge on how to use these gases cost-effectively in minimum amounts to produce the desired residual oxygen level effect. Lastly, packaging must have the proper barriers and optimum cost effectiveness.

Packaging membranes and gas flush that maintain fresh-cut quality vary by the item and its respiration rate. The proper atmosphere helps extend shelf life, maintain crispness and reduce coloration, unpleasant odors and off-flavors. Some packaging membranes can adjust oxygen transmission rates when temperatures fluctuate within the store and during consumer transport.

Beefing up dinner
Fong is on target with deciding to merchandise the company’s potatoes in the meat case. After all, according to the American Meat Institute, Arlington, VA, U.S. per-capita consumption of red meat, poultry and fish in 1999 reached a record high of 235 lbs. This trend is expected to continue into the next decade.

Consumers spent more for beef in 2000 than any other time in history, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), Englewood, CO. Total consumer expenditures for beef at retail topped $52 billion — the first time ever that consumer spending exceeded $50 billion in one year. The $52 billion mark is $3.3 billion more than 1999 spending levels. Much of this renewed interest in beef is a result of the popularity of steakhouses. Because consumers are enjoying the taste of beef when they dine out, they now want to experience it at home.

It’s not just steaks that consumers are buying. The beef industry is working with food manufacturers to develop different entrées that make it easier for consumers to prepare beef for dinner. In the past year, a variety of heat-and-eat products have debuted in the meat department — microwaveable pot roast, barbecue-beef tubs, premarinated chuck steak, seasoned meatballs and cooked ground-beef crumbles.

And why not make it even easier to make Hamburger Helper? Ground beef is the No. 1 choice in fresh meat purchased by consumers, representing 20% of all fresh meat and 50% of all beef sold at retail, reports NCBA. In fact, 58% of all ground beef sold is used as an ingredient.

An in-home consumer evaluation of ground-beef crumbles followed by focus groups indicated that consumers were enthusiastic about the significant timesavings involved with using cooked ground beef in recipes. Consumers stated that the product would help them make quick, wholesome meals for their family more often. They also expressed a willingness to pay a premium for the added convenience (suggested retail price ranges from $3.40 to $3.70 per 12-oz. cooked package, which is equivalent to 1 lb. uncooked).

Cooked ground beef crumbles eliminate the need for consumers to thaw, brown or drain off drippings from ground beef, according to NCBA. This type of product merchandises in either the fresh-meat case or the frozen-foods section of the supermarket and can be preflavored to make cooking easier.

Other heat-and-serve beef products include sirloin-tip roast that contains a 15% marinade solution of water, salt, phosphate and natural flavorings. Vacuum-packed with a 14-day shelf life, such value-added roasts provide consumers with a foolproof way to prepare beef. Many such roasts include a pop-up timer, similar to a turkey, to ensure just-right cooking.

In-store rotisserie beef roasts also are growing in popularity. With few grab-and-go beef deli items, consumers are willing to try something different, reports NCBA. After nearly two years of development and testing, NCBA is rolling out its Rotiss-A-Roast™, a premium-quality beef roast prepared at the deli in the same type of rotisserie oven used for chicken. A 15% marinade injection helps ensure a great tasting, juicy roast.

All these heat-and-serve beef products are helping grow the beef category. Since 1998, convenient beef-product retail sales grew from $43.22 million to $84.27 million, a 95% increase, reports NCBA. Existing items accounted for a 7% increase in retail sales in 2000, or $3.8 million, as compared to the previous year. The rest of the category growth came from new products, which generated $27.8 million. As innovation in the meat department continues, the industry anticipates continued impressive growth.

Chicken in every pot
The poultry industry is not yet ready to give up its hold on consumers, so of course, companies, such as Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale, AR, and Perdue Farms Inc., Salisbury, MD, are actively developing more convenient forms of branded fresh chicken. However, many of these are moving towards more-prepared and fully cooked items. Manufacturers are trying to duplicate products from quick-service and family-style restaurants.

Tyson Foods is in the process of rolling out its new ready-to-eat line of chicken products. The seven-item, fully cooked line includes grilled chicken breast strips, diced chicken breast, shredded chicken breast, ground chicken crumbles, grilled chicken breast fillets, barbecue shredded chicken tub and chicken taco filling tub. The products can be a main ingredient in cold dishes, hot dishes and skillet meals.

Perdue, which for the past few years has been offering consumers a line of marinated ready-to-cook or grill chicken breasts, as well as a line of fully cooked and seasoned chicken strips, is expanding its offerings in both of these categories.

New fully cooked items include Short Cuts® carved chicken, bite-sized pieces of fully cooked chicken in oven roasted, honey roasted, lemon pepper, Italian, Southwestern and three pepper blend varieties. The company also has introduced seasoned cooked chicken-breast cutlets that use the company’s unique breading process to ensure maximum coverage and adherence. A low-fat version also is available.

In the ready-to-cook category, Perdue now is offering seasoned turkey and chicken burgers, char-grill beef, broccoli and mushroom, spicy vegetable and savory chicken flavors. The company’s line of uncooked, presliced and preseasoned chicken meat, called Simply Saute™ seasoned chicken, eliminates the time required for a marinade to soak in and messy handling of chicken. Varieties are savory classic, Parmesan garlic and spicy fiesta.

Meat-based meal kits also are appearing in retailers’ refrigerated meat cases. Mountaire Farms Inc., Lumber Bridge, NC, debuted the first fresh poultry meal kit along the East Coast this spring. Sizzling Sensations™ is a three-variety line of chicken meal kits that can be prepared in about 10 minutes in a single pan. Meal kits include items such as separately packaged cooked rice, noodles or tortillas, vegetables, gourmet sauces, packets of olive oil (for cooking the chicken) and white-meat chicken, which comes packaged in a marinade that acts as a preservative to help extend its shelf life. The meal kits currently have a 14-day refrigerated shelf life, due to the careful selection of fresh ingredients and the use of high-barrier packaging. Versus frozen, overall taste, texture and appearance of the prepared product is noticeably improved, says the company.

Marinade matters
Progressive Grocer magazine reports that retailers should look for more marinated and seasoned chicken products to hit store shelves, especially at the beginning of 2002, when new FDA regulations take effect, requiring processors to state on the label the amount of moisture that is retained during processing. But the retained moisture doesn’t have to be listed if there are additional ingredients, such as marinades or seasonings. Many manufactures feel that listing a marinade or seasoning is a more positive way to market a product than quoting the percentage of moisture retained.

This is great news because such semi-prepared products really need some flavoring to keep them flavorful. “Whenever a cut of meat is prepared or processed prior to reaching the consumer, the meat is going to lose some flavors and volatiles,” says Steve Wilbur, assistant vice president of marketing and customer satisfaction, David Michael & Co., Philadelphia. “Savory flavors are available to enhance beef, chicken, seafood and other meats. Cuts of meat can be marinated, injected or even rubbed with the flavor. Ground or formed items can have the flavor blended into the meat. Nuances can add the taste of browned, sautéed, grilled, fried and roasted, without actually performing the suggested cooking technique.”

Shelf-stable selections
Hamburger Helper, the founding meal-solution kit, is getting lots of company on the shelf. However, shelf-stable meals are moving beyond dry rice or pasta and seasoning packets.

Camden, NJ-based Campbell Soup Co., introduced Supper Bakes, a shelf-stable meal kit containing a 10.75-oz. easy-open can of its specially blended baking sauce, a seasoning packet, rice, pasta or stuffing and a crumb topping. Consumers just add meat.

Each of the four meal varieties takes just five minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to bake. Varieties include herb chicken with rice, lemon chicken with herb rice, garlic chicken with pasta and savory pork chops with herb stuffing.

Campbell’s product developers also have formulated a new sauce that is specially blended for baking and flavor retention, the Prego® Pasta Bake Sauce line. With less than five minutes of preparation time and about 45 minutes of baking, families can dine on restaurant-style, oven-baked Italian meals at home. The sauce also does not require precooking of pasta.

Shelf-stable meals have come and gone in recent years, but Wornick Co., Cincinnati, believes its new line of fully cooked non-refrigerated meals are a winner. The meals do not require refrigeration or freezing because of the cooking process used, which resembles canning.

“Unlike most microwaveable meals, which are sold frozen, Homestyle Express™ entrées can be kept on hand — in consumers pantries, desk drawers and dorm rooms for up to 12 months,” says Stephanie Hart, product manager. These meals are ready in the microwave in two minutes. Varieties include pot roast, beef stew and glazed chicken with rice.

Vegetarians need not fear, there are convenient meal kits for you, too. Springfield, IL-based Spectrum Foods Inc.’s shelf-stable Premier Harvest® meatless meal kits provide all the zesty flavors of traditional ground beef entrées without the beef. Three varieties are available: chili, Sloppy Joe and taco. The protein component is made using soy. Each kit is a quick meal solution that can be prepared in as little as five minutes and provides 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving.

Grilling drives development
Americans love the taste of grilled food, but preparation time is tricky, time-consuming and weather-dependent. Interest in grilling has exploded during the past few years, with sales figures indicating that more than 75% of Americans now own a grill, according to the Barbecue Industry Association, Naperville, IL.

A recent omnibus telephone survey of 1,000 adults conducted for Birds Eye®, a brand of Agrilink Foods Inc., Green Bay, WI, indicates that nearly all Americans (92%) like the flavor of grilled foods and 81% want to be able to have grilled food any time of the year. The survey also showed that while 77% of consumers like adding grilled vegetables to meals, more than half (51%) say that vegetables are the most difficult things to grill.

“Knowing that Americans enjoy grilled food, we developed a new vegetable product that delivers hot off-the-grill flavor with easy preparations,” says Mike Curtin, business director for branded frozen vegetables and meals for Birds Eye. This new product, Simply Grillin’™, comes frozen in a versatile foil tray that can go directly into the oven, or on a gas or charcoal grill, with no preparation and the vegetables are ready in just 30 minutes. Four varieties are available: roasted corn and potatoes (roasted corn, roasted red peppers, onions and red and green peppers with butter seasoning), potatoes and onions (roasted red peppers, potatoes and onions with butter and chive seasoning), roasted garlic (roasted red potatoes, broccoli, sweet peppers and onions with garlic and herb seasonings) and garden herb (broccoli, carrots, roasted corn and green beans with garden herb seasonings).

Premarinated and preseasoned meats are ideal candidates for grilling. But for do-it-yourselfers, products like Grill Mates® from McCormick & Company Inc., Hunt Valley, MD, simplify the process. The line includes shake-on seasonings of coarsely ground spice blends that can be used as a rub or with a small amount of liquid to become a paste. It also includes 30-minute marinades that require the addition of water, oil and vinegar.

Food manufacturers looking to develop foods with that off-the-grill taste can look to companies such as Kraft Food Ingredients Corp. (KFI), Memphis, TN, which is introducing a new generation of grill flavors that includes: backyard BBQ grill, chargrill, lemon grill and international grill. These flavors simplify the manufacturing process of foods by replicating flavors associated with actual cooking practices. Adding such flavors provides a cost-savings to the manufacturer in terms of time, labor and raw-material costs.

“We believe it is important to develop products that reflect current consumer trends,” says Patti Lehigh, KFI’s senior research scientist. “The flavors reflect increasing consumer demand for authentic tastes. For instance, the chargrill flavor provides distinctive charred and smoky notes similar to grilling over charcoal briquettes.”

“It’s quite obvious that what consumers like to eat in restaurants will quickly show up on grocery-store shelves,” adds Lucien Vendome, KFI’s executive chef. “People are looking for that restaurant experience everywhere they go. As a result, it is necessary for manufacturers to truly understand the different cooking processes chefs use in order to correctly achieve those same flavors in their products.”

In the global kitchen
With ethnic foods expected to account for one out of every seven U.S. food dollars in the next 10 years, condiment suppliers are attempting to make it easier for food manufacturers and consumers to add an international flair to prepared foods.

“More than ever before, America is sampling a world of cuisines and developing a love affair with bold, aggressive flavors from all over the world,” says Laurie Hansen, director of consumer affairs for McCormick. “In response to this growing trend, McCormick has put together a portfolio of products — new and proven favorites — to answer America’s flavor craving.”

The new McCormick Gourmet Collection™ features 22 herbs, spices and blends that reflect increasing international culinary influences and includes flavors such as chipotle chili pepper, garam masala (an Indian blend), lemon grass, red curry and wasabi powder.

The company also sells its unique herbs, spices and blends to other food manufacturers. Many of the aforementioned meals and meal kits use such ingredients to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Tone Brothers Inc., Ankeny, IA, has its own line of ethnic spice blends to make it easy for consumers to prepare delicious global cuisine at home. The nine new Spice Islands® World Flavor™ spice blends include herbes de provence, Thai, Greek, Szechwan, Jamaican jerk, garam masala, Calcutta heat curry, Mediterranean and Louisiana-style Cajun. Two ethnic recipes come with each blend in a peel-off label on the bottle.

“Americans have developed more sophisticated tastes and interest in dishes from all over the world,” says Andrew Ip, marketing manager for Spice Islands. “Spices of all types, including what were considered exotic, are rising in popularity. People want to prepare multicultural dishes at home, yet often are afraid to experiment with unfamiliar spices. World Flavor spice blends take the guesswork out of ethnic cooking by combining complementary spices the cuisine is known for.”

By the end of 2001, sales of Pacific Rim, Mediterranean and Caribbean foods are expected to reach $383 million, according to the company. Manufacturers of heat-and-eat meals, meal kits and various meal components should be aware of this trend in order to develop foods for this market.

Keep in mind these words spoken by Michael Sansolo, a senior vice president of FMI, at the FMI 2001 Supermarket Industry Convention in Chicago this May: “Even ‘minute’ rice is no longer quick enough…shoppers, as usual, want it all — better, faster, cheaper. And not always cheaper. Convenience is much more important.”

Donna Berry, president of Chicago-based Dairy & Food Communications Inc., a network of professionals in business-to-business technical and trade communications, has been writing about product development and marketing for eight years. Prior to that, she worked for Kraft Foods in the natural cheese division. Donna has a B.S. in food science from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She can be reached at donnagorski@msn.com.

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