Frozen Convenience

Time-pressed consumers often go out to eat, but as pocketbooks tighten, consumers increasingly eat at home. And convenience is a priority. Packaged Facts, New York, projects that, by 2012, the convenience food market will reach $47.5 billion, and frozen convenience foods will reach $19 billion.

Keeping tabs on trends

In the stock market, by the time a trend is identified, it’s often too late to profit. That’s not necessarily true for the food industry, where convenience foods can take advantage of several concurrent movements. “Health and wellness seems to be the front-running trend, followed by convenience foods for busy lifestyles and interest in ethnic cuisines and flavors,” says Denise Fallaw, category technical manager, prepared foods and meat, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Wayzata, MN.

Vikki Nicholson, business director, cheese and dairy, Kraft Food Ingredients, Memphis, TN, notices an “increasing focus on snacking items and smaller portion sizes. These items now fit multiple day-part uses: a snack item, an appetizer or a light meal. Handheld has always been a growing trend, but it’s taken a new twist with mini versions of entrée items. The growing ethnic influence is also impacting frozen convenience foods with items like empanadas, and unique flavor twists on egg rolls and wraps.”

A recent study reported by Mintel, Chicago, and commissioned by Kahiki Foods, Gahanna, OH, questioned 1,500 adults over the age of 18 who have purchased frozen meals during the last year. Almost half of those surveyed want more Chinese frozen foods. Nearly the same percentage does not explore ethnic food purchases beyond Mexican, Italian and Chinese.

Asian is a top trend, notes Bill Schoenleb, corporate executive chef, CF Chefs, Inc., Dallas. “You see more people do more things with coconut milk, basil and chile peppers,” he says. “Five years ago, that didn’t exist.” He believes the market for Mexican might be waning.

Everybody is trying to go to “more natural, vibrant flavors,” continues Schoenleb. “That leads you to Thai cuisine.” Frozen food is also driven by the demand for healthy cuisine. He notes that, especially on the West Coast, consumer pressure is mounting for natural and preservative-free food products. Often, that means “frozen is the only real avenue you can go, because you have such a limited shelf life from the time something is manufactured to the time something’s distributed and put on the shelf,” he says. “Unless it’s being done by someone like Whole Foods internally, they can’t get enough shelf life on the product to make it financially feasible.”

Keeping flavor vibrant

The first question to ask when choosing a flavor is: Once frozen, how will the product be cooked?

Flavor release in a microwave is different than in a conventional oven. “When you heat a food in the microwave, the evaporated water can cause steam distillation of flavor components,” says Mariano Gascon, vice president, R&D, Wixon, Inc., St. Francis, WI. “The lower the molecular weight and the more water soluble the individual ingredients are that make the flavor, the more losses you will have in the flavor due to microwave heating. If you want to create a frozen food that will be heated in the microwave, the flavoring used should have low water-vapor volatility.”