Food Processing - June 2008 - (Page 20)

sPecial rePort although the Post unit is being sold, Kraft debuted liveactive cereals, with cargill’s prebiotic fiber for digestive health. In addition to the bigname companies, the new FMI Show afforded a good portion of the spotlight to some smaller companies. Alamance Foods, a Burlington, N.C., maker of freezer pops, had one of the biggest and most centrally located exhibits. Mayberry’s Finest has been three years in the making, but the brand finally was launched earlier this year by Choice Food of America, Nashville, Tenn. Based on baby boomer nostalgia for the 1960s70s TV show, it focuses on down-home comfort foods that might have been in Aunt Bea’s pantry: cans of black-eyed peas, chicken and dumplings or sausage gravy, and pouched baking mixes for cornbread muffins, hushpuppies and peach cobbler. “The brand is 48 years old, and the show has never really been off the air,” points out Phillip Connelly, Choice Food president. So far, distribution is just in seven mid-South states. Some of our other favorite new products included: Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J., debuted a new line of Campbell’s Select Harvest soups. Available in both cans and microwave bowls, each variety has been formulated to deliver great taste with 480mg of sodium per serving. Nestle’s Stouffer’s brand rolled out Easy Express Family Size meals to feed the whole kit and caboodle at home. Preservativefree, the home-assembly meals are ready in only 18 minutes. There are 130 varieties including Fettuccini Alfredo, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Lasagna and Baked Chicken Breast. McCormick & Co., Hunt Valley, Md., allows you to use a restaurant-style technique to get a crunchy texture to chicken, fish or pork with McCormick Crusting Blends, made with panko breadcrumbs and specially formulated herb and spice blends. Varieties include French Onion, Pepper and Herb, Italian Herb & Cheese, and Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary. McCormick’s Thai Kitchen brand showed four new 10-minute Curry Simmer Sauces in authentic Asian flavors: Red Curry, Green Curry, Yellow Curry and Panang Curry. Ruiz Foods, Dinuba, Calif., goes to the frozen desserts case for the first time with the debut of El Monterey Cheesecake Bites. The company wraps creamy cheesecake and either raspberry or caramel topping in an oven-baked flour tortilla, dip the batter and lightly fry it. Voila, a scrumptious hand-held delight. Speaking of convenience, Eggland’s Best Inc., Jeffersonville, Pa., rolled out a six-pack of refrigerated Hard-Cooked, Peeled Eggs, perfectly cooked and ready to eat. They last seven days after the package’s opening. Hershey and Starbucks collaborated on a line of artisan-style Starbucks chocolates inspired by Starbucks flavors. Try the Chai variety. 20 • Food Processing June 2008 Ready Pac Produce, Irwindale, Calif., added four options to its popular Ready Snax line in time for summer snacking: Apples & Cinnamon Crème (fresh sliced apples with crunchy granola and a cinnamon cream dip); Mango Blueberry Tray (fresh mangoes and blueberries complemented by a proprietary lemon chiffon dip); Pina Colada Tray (fresh pineapple with red grapes, coconut and a vanilla crème dip); and the Veggie Cheese Pretzel Tray (carrots, grapes, cheese and pretzels). Sunsweet Growers, Yuba City, Calif., introduced 60-calorie packs of Pitted Prunes and Dried Plums and 70-calorie packs of Sunsweet Mediterranean Apricots. Uncrustables Peanut Butter & Honey from Orrville, Ohio-based J.M. Smucker Co. makes a great lunch for the pint-size members of the family. Honest Tea, Bethesda, Md., for the first time in the Coca-Cola family, introduced Honest Kids, organic thirst quenchers in readyto-go, single-serve pouches with half the sugar of most kids’ drinks, 100 percent of their daily vitamin C needs and no caffeine, highfructose corn syrup or artificial flavors. Varieties include Berry Berry Good Lemonade, Goodness Grapeness and Tropical Tango Punch. Jel Sert Co., West Chicago, Ill., partnered with Fairfield, Calif.based Jelly Belly Candy Co. to launch Jelly Belly Freezer Pops. These refreshing bars are available in a variety pack in flavors that include Very Cherry, Lemon Drop, Berry Blue and Green Apple. Markham, Ontario-based Drink Z beverages rolls out Infusion Flavor Twist, with a sport cap that allows you to twist as much flavor and vitamins as you want into your Red Punch, Orange, Blue Raz or Purple Grape drink, which begin with natural spring water. The future of the show This year’s FMI Show shared its space with the United Fresh Marketplace, a produce show. There were 1,100 exhibitors, including 300 from United Fresh. Attendance was 17,543, down from last year’s 19,510, but last year’s show included three other small shows. Peak attendance was 35,000 in 1991. “As you know, because of new ways of doing business facilitated by technology, trade shows have changed a lot since we first started and formats and expectations are different,” said Brian Tully, senior vice president of conventions and education at FMI. “We believe that bringing the show to Las Vegas created a new and fresh atmosphere with a ton of excitement. There was a lot of good buzz on the floor, filled with vibrant booths and excampbell is leverag- ing the equity in its V8 brand to replace the select gold label line of soups, while retaining the aseptic box packaging. FoodProcessing.com http://foodprocessing.com

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Food Processing - June 2008 Editor's Plate NewsBites Show Report The Trends Rollout Food Biz Kids Consumer Taste Test A Bevy of New CEOs Ingredients Packaging Plant Operations MRO Q&A New Supplier Products Toops Scoops Contents

Food Processing - June 2008

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