Food Business News - April 23, 2013 - 18

Ethnic ﬂavors gain favor in cooking sauces
Recent launches cater to growing appetite for cultural cuisine

KANSAS CITY — New flavors and product formats are stirring the cooking
sauce category, serving both a growing
appetite for ethnic cuisine and the perennial push for more convenience in
the kitchen.
As consumers discover global dishes
in restaurants, they seek to simulate the
experience at home, said David Turner,
global food and drink analyst at Mintel International, a Chicago firm. Nearly
one in five restaurant entrees contained
an ethnic flavor last year, according to
Mintel. With more than three-fourths of
consumers claiming intermediate cooking skills, store-bought sauces have become a home chef’s helper.
“Consumers who aren’t the most confident in their cooking skills are not going
to want to cook from scratch a cuisine
they’re not 100% sure of, particularly if
it’s an unusual cuisine to them, so they’re
much more willing to use a cooking
sauce or seasoning to help them along,”
he said. “Particularly if you’re looking at
Asian cuisine, some of those dishes can
have seven, eight, nine individual ingredients if cooked from scratch. Not many
people are going to have the time or the
c
confidence
in
t
their skills to do
t
that, so buying a

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premade marinade is a benefit.”
Several recent launches aim to satisfy
the desire to whip up a worldly dish.
The Campbell Soup Co.’s Skillet Sauces,
which are added to meat or vegetables
as they simmer on the stovetop, come
in creamy chipotle, Thai green curry,
Marsala and toasted sesame varieties.
Campbell also plans to debut Slow Cooker Sauces later this year in four to five
flavors, including Sweet Korean BBQ.
ConAgra Foods Inc. last August began
testing Hunt’s Dinner Sauces in Lexington, Ky., in Tuscan, Greek and Cacciatore flavors.
Authentic and traditional ingredients
are becoming “increasingly important and
a good way of adding value to the product,” Mr. Turner said. MegaMex Foods,
a joint venture between Hormel Foods
Corp. and Herdez Del Fuerte, in March introduced Herdez Mexican cooking sauces
in four varieties designed to deliver flavors with just-add-meat convenience.
Busy, working families are most likely to

from scratch than a pre-made stock.”
Land O’Lakes Sauté Express, which
debuted last year, are pre-measured, preseasoned blocks of butter and olive oil
that consumers may toss in a pan with
chicken, fish or pork. Another dairybased dinner sauce comes from Kraft
Foods’ Philadelphia Cream Cheese portfolio. Philadelphia Cooking Creme is
spooned and blended into skillets, casseroles and pasta as a flavorful stand-in
for condensed soup or sour cream.
The products appeal to a growing interest in chilled products.
“There’s a perception that if it’s in the
chiller cabinet, it’s fresh and healthier,”
Mr. Turner said. “As consumers migrate
from more ambient and frozen products
into fresh products, fresh cooking sauces and pasta sauces can grow particularly well.”
Consumers also are looking for products with fewer ingredients.
“Naturalness is a real opportunity
because the barrier is people who are

use cooking sauces, according to Mintel,
and new products promise one-step simplicity for breaking a recipe rut. General
Mills last year introduced Progresso Recipe Starters, shelf-stable dinner sauces in
creamy Italian flavors. The product may be
used as a foundation for hundreds of meal
ideas, according to Progresso.
“Th more the supplier can
“The
m
make the cooking sauce
s
seem as if it’s proper cooki
ing, the more people are
w
willing to buy it,” Mr. Turns
er said. “If you can use your
ingre
ingredient format almost in a
more concentrated form like
a jelly or solid that people then
stir in themselves it makes them
mo
feel more like they’re cooking

concerned about the number of ingredients,” Mr. Turner said. “Products with
fewer ingredients and certainly ones that
are additive- or preservative-free and
MSG-free are real drivers.”
Low-sodium, low-sugar, and low- or
nonfat products also may entice consumers, he added.
In spite of recent innovations and new
flavors, most launches since 2009 were
traditional, tomato-based sauces, according to Mintel.
“I think the opportunity for a lot of
manufacturers is to add a fusion twist or
an Asian flavor to it or to try to encourage consumers to be more experimental
and try Asian sauces and flavors,” Mr.
Turner said. “Tomato-based are doing
well, but Asian foods are increasing.” FBN

April 23, 2013

Food Business News - April 23, 2013

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