Convenience foods the way forward
convenience is driving innovation in the food industry, finds a
report on recent US product launches.
A Reuters business report claims that convenience food is driving innovation in the food industry. The trend towards convenience products continues to increase, it reveals, as food manufacturers try to speed up growth in the slow-moving industry.
Large US companies such as conglomerate ConAgra Foods and US dairy producer Dean Foods, as well as lesser-known names like privately-held Jel Sert, are increasingly interested with developing pre-mixed or packaged foods that travel easily and offer consumers a greater variety of flavours, finds the report.
ConAgra is pitching at the snacks market with two snacks in a tube that take their names from Hershey Foods brands through a licensing agreement.
Hershey's Portable Pudding and Jolly Rancher Portable Gel Snacks come refrigerated in single-serve tubes and follow the success that cereal maker General Mills has had with its tubular yoghurt snack line, Go-Gurt. The ConAgra products will enter the US market in June.
Dean Foods is adding a new Double Chocolate flavour to its range of Milk Chugs, single-serve milks introduced in 1997 that gave milk the same portability as canned drinks.
In a bid to take the work out of a task mothers have been performed for decades, Sara Lee is introducing a range of crustless bread under the IronKids brand. The bread, now sold in only a few test markets, is expected to be available in about 60 per cent of US groceries in July.
"Kids not wanting crust in nothing new," Sara Lee spokesman Steve Mura told Reuters. But demand for time-saving products is increasing, he said.
Under a distribution agreement with cereal maker Kellogg, Gel Sert has designed kit packages of a single-serve fruit-flavoured drink with a mini version of Kellogg Co.'s Rice Krispies Treats, which fits easily inside a child's lunchbox.
Chicago-based Gel Sert is also adding a line of tubular-shaped frozen ices under its Wyler's brand.
"Adults today are looking for foods with taste and nutrition that are also convenient and fun to eat," said Jel Sert President Ken Wegner. "We took the key insights from those consumer trends and designed unique products to fulfill those needs."
The report is based on the new foods being launched at the Food Marketing Institute's trade show this weekend.
