What's New in Review
New meat products have made their way onto store shelves and restaurant menus in recent months. Meat Marketing & Technology, with the aid of Marketing Intelligence Service of Naples, N.Y., reviews what's new in the market.
-- Tony's, Marshall, Minn., offers Supreme Style French Bread Personal Pizza with sausage, pepperoni, red peppers, green peppers, onions and mozzarella cheese.
The frozen pizza can be baked or microwaved and is packaged in a 6.3-ounce cardboard box. Retail price is $1.79.
-- Hormel Foods Corp., Austin, Minn., offers Super Select Pork Tenderloins available in teriyaki and peppercorn flavors. They can be merchandised in the full-service, gourmet or fresh pork sections of the meat case.
Hormel is also offering "new & improved" Real Bacon Bits, which have "more real bacon flavor in every bit" and 50 less fat, the company claims.
-- Signature Foods Inc., Omaha, Neb., introduces Beef Taco Filling in a 24-ounce plastic chub pack. It is ready to cook and to be served in tacos, burritos, enchiladas and salads.
The brown-and-serve convenience appeals to the lifestyles of busy consumers, the company states.
-- H.J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, offers its Heinz Deli Cup Soups, featuring Hearty Vegetable Beef, "a hearty vegetable soup richly flavored by morsels of tender beef braised in the kettle for a savory sauce"; and Minestrone, "a classic soup with vegetables, beans and pasta in a seasoned base that includes beef broth."
-- Country Meats, Ocala, Fla., has added four flavors to its Smoked Snack Stick line, including Cajun styled, sweet BBQ, taco and pizza. They are encased in foot-long packages.
-- Pocino Foods Co., The City of Industry, Calif., offers a variety of prepared pizza toppings, pepperoni and ham.
They are available in standard and custom formulations.
-- Oak Leaf Fine Foods Inc., Bradenton, Fla., is slicing and packaging a Danish low-fat, low-salt bacon for distribution in the Southeast. The Danish product sells for $1.99 a package at a Florida retailer.
-- VIP Sales Co., Tulsa, Okla., offers Tai Pan, a line of 10 Frozen Oriental Entrees featuring beef and broccoli.
Packaged in a 14.2-ounce box, similar to takeout containers, the product can be left in the package and heated in the microwave in eight minutes. It has no MSG. Suggested retail price range is from $2.29 to $2.89.
-- Gilardi Foods Inc., Sydney, Ohio, offers its 12-Inch Ultra Thin Crust Frozen Hearth-Baked Pizza. Cheese, pepperoni, sausage, combination and supreme varieties are available with a retail price range of $3.79 to $3.99.
-- Saffron Gardens, Burlington, Ontario, introduces Saffron Gardens Beef Samosas. The pastries are filled with "lightly spiced ingredients" and are made without preservatives, artificial flavor or color, or MSG. MM&T
-- Healthy Choice, Omaha, Neb., introduces Hearty Handfuls, a line of frozen sandwich entrees. Each sandwich is made with "bakery style" specialty breads stuffed with chunks of lean meats, crisp vegetables and a variety of rich, creamy sauces, the company claims.
Each sandwich contains an average of 4.7 grams of fat and 307 calories. They are available in six varieties, including:
-- Roast beef: tender beef, potatoes and carrots blended in pan gravy and stuffed into multi-grain bun.
-- Philly beef steak: beef steak, onions, green peppers and mozzarella cheese stuffed in multi-grain bread.
Hearty Handfuls are sold in the entree section of the freezer case. Suggested retail price is $1.99.
If your company has launched a new meat product, please mail or fax a news release to Larry Aylward, Meat Marketing & Technology, The Arcade, 401 Euclid Ave., Suite 461, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, phone 216/579-0815 or fax 216/579-0911.