Foodservice Sauce Goes Retail
Saucy chicken chain Zaxbys is bringing its legendary sauces to retail customers nationwide. The new product line meets the demand of flavor-craving consumers with three bottled fan-favorite sauces.
Zax Sauce is mayonnaise-based. Its tang comes from a proprietary blend of spices, of which the recipe is kept locked away in a vault, according to the company. Spicy Zax Sauce is the same sauce with heat. The third variety is a vinegar-based hot sauce. Tongue Torch Sauce is fat-free and made with aged peppers, garlic and mustard seeds.
The shelf-stable condiments are produced through a collaboration with Litehouse. The 16-oz. squeeze bottles sell for $4.48-4.98. The Litehouse brand has also entered the bold condiment category with Litehouse Loaded, a refrigerated line of sauces that comes in three varieties: Buffalo, Fry and Taco. The Loaded Fry features bacon and creamy cheese in a buttermilk base. The other two use mayo.
Heat-and-Eat Eggs
egglandsbest.com/products/egg-rounds
Eggland’s Best, the leading branded egg in the U.S., now offers frozen Sous Vide Egg Rounds in two varieties: Bacon & Cheese and Sausage & Cheese. The company’s patented method of production and verification ensures that its eggs have six times more vitamin D, more than double the omega-3 fatty acids, 10 times more vitamin E and 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs.
The new rounds are made with these eggs. The egg rounds can be enjoyed on their own, as a sandwich starter or on a salad. The sous-vide style ensures a fluffy texture, meaning no more tough, chewy egg, even after heating in the microwave. Sous vide is an innovative cooking technique that involves vacuum sealing food in a specially designed pouch and slow cooking it in water at low temperature until fully cooked. The package is then flash frozen or refrigerated.
Globally Inspired Shelf-stable Meals
bensoriginal.com/rice-products/street-food
Mars Food & Nutrition, a business segment of Mars Inc., is expanding into the ready meals space with the launch of Ben’s Original Street Food in the U.S. and Canada, taking this rice side dish brand to the center of the plate. The shelf-stable meals are designed to assist consumers with on-the-go convenience that does not sacrifice flavor or nutrition.
To create the new products, the Mars Food & Nutrition team engaged consumers in the development, tapped into chefs’ creativity and leveraged AI powered insights. Ready in just 90 seconds in the microwave, the bowls come in four varieties. They are: Bean & Rice Burrito Bowl, Fried Rice with Vegetables, Gumbo with Chicken Andouille Sausage and Jamaican Jerk Style Red Beans & Rice with Chicken. Other recent innovations from the brand include Ben’s Original Plant Powered, Ben’s Original 10 Medley and Ben’s Original One Pan Creations.
Snack Bars for Back to School
Once Upon a Farm, a childhood nutrition brand, is growing its pantry snacks portfolio with organic, Soft-Baked Bars for Kids. Available in four kid-approved flavors — Apple & Oat, Chocolate Oat, Mixed Berry and Banana Chocolate Chip (a Kroger exclusive flavor and available online in August) — each bar contains real fruits and vegetables, 100% whole grain oats and no-added sugar. They are also non-GMO Project Verified and free from artificial flavors and colors.
The company is also releasing limited-edition back-to-school four packs of some of its beverages, including dairy-free smoothies in Strawberry Banana Swirl and Berry Berry flavors, as well as its Organic Immunity Blends. These juices come in two different combo packs, with two varieties of a flavor. One combo features pineapple banana dragonfruit and blueberry banana ginger. The other is mango banana spirulina and apple cherry elderberry.
Noodle Cups S’mores?
Ramen manufacturer Nissin Foods USA shows consumers it’s no ordinary noodle brand. The company reimagined a summertime classic fireside dessert with the launch of limited-edition Cup Noodles Campfire S’mores. This gooey, sweet noodle experience is exclusive to Walmart. It combines chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker flavors with a smokey note for a unique s’mores experience. Simply add water, microwave for three minutes and let it stand for two minutes.
For more than 65 years, Nissin Foods has led the instant ramen industry with innovation and culinary creativity. Earlier this year, the company offered limited-edition Cup Noodles Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese, which combines noodles with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, dried onion and caraway seeds in a rich cream cheese flavored sauce, which was also exclusive to Walmart where the cups sell for $1.18.
Milk That’s Easy on the Tummy
Garelick Farms, a farmer-owned brand from Dairy Farmers of America, is adding lactose-free milk to its lineup. It is said to be easier to digest while still delivering all the vitamins and nutrients of regular milk. Bottled locally in Massachusetts, the new milk is manufactured using high-temperature short-time (HTST) processing, which differentiates it from some other national lactose-free milks that use ultra-high temperature (UHT) processing.
The gallon jugs come in whole and 2% reduced-fat varieties. The debut is supported with an integrated campaign, “Easy to Digest,” which includes digital advertising, paid and organic social and in-store marketing. The campaign uses humor to highlight hard-to-digest situations like a Red Sox rainout, traffic on I-28 or New England weather and then compares Garelick Farms lactose-free milk as easy to digest.
“Lactose intolerance affects a lot of people, but it doesn’t mean they have to give up on fresh-tasting and nutritious milk,” says Michael Young, general manager. “We hope this campaign makes people smile as they think about hard-to-digest situations, while also adding a practical, easy-to-digest solution with our new lactose-free milk.”
