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.
-- Chef's Requested Foods, Oklahoma City, introduces its Bacon Wrapped Filet of Beef, available in a 5-ounce vacuum pack with a suggested retail price of $1.99.
-- Cumberland Gap Provision Co., Middleboro, Ky., offers its Cubed Ham. The fully-cooked, hickory-smoked product can be found in the refrigerated meat section of supermarkets in a 16-ounce clear plastic vacuum pack designed for rack display.
Serving suggestions say it can be used to enhance salads, omelets, bean soup, quiche, souffles or to season any vegetable.
The ham retails for $2.79.
-- Monfort Inc., Greeley, Colo., is marketing a line of pork roasts under the Armour brand name.
The varieties are: Seasoned Boneless Pork Roast, Italian style, and onion and garlic; Boneless Pork Loin, teriyaki; Seasoned Pork Roast, porketta style, and onion and garlic; and Marinated Pork Loin, mesquite and green chile.
The pork is packaged in plastic shrink wrap and is advertised as being tender, convenient and great tasting with no MSG or artificial flavors.
-- Swift-Eckrich Inc., Downers Grove, Ill., offers 14-ounce packages of Eckrich Fat-Free Franks and Beef Franks.
Called "easy-open twin packs," the packages are two vacuum packs each containing four links and feature a sleeve around them to make one package. Label copy for the franks states, "Made with turkey, pork, beef; natural smoke flavoring added; fully cooked; 0 grams of fat per serving."
The franks retail for $3.19.
-- Alex Foods Inc., Anaheim, Calif., introduces a line of frozen Mexican dinners tagged as having a milder sauce.
The El Charrito Lean Ole line includes beef enchilada, featuring two beef enchiladas in chili sauce with beans and Spanish rice; and an enchilada combination, which comes with one beef enchilada in chili sauce and one cheese enchilada in chili con queso sauce, Spanish rice and beans.
They are made with "hearty beef, zesty cheese, stone ground corn tortillas and natural spices," and are 98 percent fat-free, low in calories and low in cholesterol, the company claims.
The microwaveable dinners are packaged in cardboard boxes.
-- Farm Raised Foods Inc., Forest Lake, Minn., is marketing Buffalo Patties and Venison Patties with wild rice as frozen entrees.
Presented in 6.4-ounce packages, the products are made with natural ingredients, and are low in fat and high in fiber, the company claims. The products retail for $5.24. MM&T
-- Farmland Foodservice, Kansas City, Mo., offers Farmland Gold Medal Endless Ham in both natural juice and water-added varieties. The ham, which weighs from 10 pounds to 12 pounds, offers operators a no-waste, quality ham product with many menu applications, the company claims.
The "endless" ham means operators can slice it from end-to-end for optimum slicing yield. Made without MSG, the extra-lean ham is 97 percent fat-free with no more than three grams of fat for each 3-ounce serving, the company claims.
Farmland also offers a Precooked Apple Cinnamon Pork Loin Roast, a Precooked Apple Cinnamon Ham Roast and Black Angus Premium Ground Chuck (bulk).
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.