Meat&Poultry - February 2011 - 32

ISERNIO’S SAUSAGE

and asked people to try it. Sometimes they wanted to. But other times, they weren’t even interested in it. Once I got them to try it, I found they really liked it a lot.” A few years later by the early 1980s, the Isernio Sausage name was becoming well known in the Seattle restaurant community. Feeling more confident, Isernio decided to approach local grocery stores, and many agreed to sell his sausage in their fresh-meat departments. He spent thousands of hours going from one store to anIsernio other and showing what he called “fresh, natural” sausage. “At that time in Seattle, most sausage sold in stores was what you’d call ‘commodity’ sausage – you know, sausage made from ‘mystery meat’ – what’s that old saying, you don’t want to know how sausage and laws are made?” he says. Frank made Italian sausage using whole cuts of pork and natural spices.

making his Italian sausage from lean pork, and at the same time make a chicken sausage appealing to those same customers. Continuing to use high-quality meat, Frank created Isernio’s Italian Chicken Sausage, using 95 percent lean, fresh all-natural chicken thigh meat. It is now his top-selling sausage variety, with the pork items running close behind. He’s launched other chicken varieties, including chicken basil and sun dried tomato, chicken and apple, chicken breakfast, chicken spinach & feta, and chicken bratwurst. He’s also created a Spanish chorizo and British banger. His pork sausages are made from 80 percent lean whole muscle pork shoulder. “Sometimes consumers ask me,

More than pork and beef
By 1990, Frank began to realize more people were leaning toward poultry as a healthy alternative to pork and beef. He decided he could continue
The Chicken Sausage Roll is available in five Italian and breakfast flavors – a poultry version of pork sausage roll. (Photo
courtesy of Isernio’s Sausage)

“The sausageroll products are sold in 39 states. We make it fresh, then flash-freeze it and it’s thawed at distribution.”
‘What does whole muscle mean?’ I tell them the same cuts of meat you’ll find in your local supermarkets and use in your entrées at home – in other words, no trimmings.” He admits calling his products “fresh” and “natural” can lead to some confusion among consumers, so he explains: “Fresh means it is not pre-cooked or cured in any way. It contains only fresh meat and spices. So, the consumer must cook it, and it is fresher-tasting than pre-cooked items found in grocery stores today. “All-natural chicken and pork means it has not been altered or plumped in any way, the same goes for the spices I add. My products contain no nitrites, nitrates, fi llers, MSG, artificial colors or flavors, preservatives, antibiotics or growth hormones. The sausages are in natural

casings and are gluten-free.” In 2010, Frank took a step that would revolutionize all of his sausage products. He introduced the Chicken Sausage Roll, available in five Italian and breakfast flavors – a poultry version of pork sausage roll. With the launch of the company’s chicken sausage rolls, the products are being sold in more than two-thirds of the US, including grocery chains like Albertsons, Safeway, Kroger and Quality Food Centers (QFC), a Kroger subsidiary, Super Target stores, Supervalu, Save Mart/ Lucky and Winco Foods. The sausage-roll products are sold in 39 states. “We make it fresh, then flash-freeze it and it’s thawed at distribution,” he says. In addition to the chicken rolls, his other sausage rolls include hot Italian, mild Italian, hot breakfast, mild breakfast and chicken apple sausage. “We’re not there yet, but we’re touching the East,” he says, pointing to sales in supermarkets in Ohio and Virginia. Altogether, he makes 18 different sausage products. Frank says what promises to drive his business even further is the promotion of Michael Durand to general manager of the company. Durand has been with Isernio’s since 2006, in that time contributing to the company’s overall growth of 63 percent. He has more than 20 years of consumer packaged goods experience. Before coming to Isernio’s, Durand served as western area manager at Brach’s Confections Inc., where he managed $40 million in revenue through direct-store delivery and supply channels. Before that, he was district sales manager for Kraft Inc., where he rolled out the new Di’Giorno Frozen Pizza line. At Isernio’s, he has been vice president of sales for two years, including growing the company’s distribution beyond the Northwest US. Isernio says his new role will mean focusing on dayto-day leadership, as well as carrying out strategic plans across all departments and helping the company to meet the demands of future growth.

32 • Meat&Poultry • February 2011 • www.MeatPoultry.com

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Meat&Poultry - February 2011

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