In our travels we keep our eyes posted for great grab & go food products and ideas. Many of these solutions are being driven by innovation in hotel and restaurant kitchens by creative and innovative chefs. Other products we observe are quick and easy retail-ready items to bolster an existing product mix with an outsourced solution created by a food manufacturer. Building a well rounded product mix may require both methods to expand into new product categories without over loading the in-house kitchen. Using pre-packaged products purchased from a wholesaler are typically ready to sell with UPC codes and excellent packaging for products to "sell themselves." Utilizing these items will often help generate entirely new sales and meet guest needs in areas you may prefer not to be creating house-made food solutions.
Let's review some of the recent sightings we've discovered above that caught our attention as functional, convenient, innovative and likely delicious grab and go foods.
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind we have not sampled all the products below. We are not making any claim or professional recommendation, or endorsement but rather providing some ancedotal comments and ideas for specific products or product categories which may helpful to advance your own current grab and go food offerings:
Let's review some of the recent sightings we've discovered above that caught our attention as functional, convenient, innovative and likely delicious grab and go foods.
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind we have not sampled all the products below. We are not making any claim or professional recommendation, or endorsement but rather providing some ancedotal comments and ideas for specific products or product categories which may helpful to advance your own current grab and go food offerings:
Edamame & Citrus Salt: Pre-packaged Grab & Go Cup
The uniqueness of this item caught my attention. It's always fun to see a business try something new. The lesson from this product is to brainstorm what items might appeal to your customers and give it a try. While we hid the product label in our screen cap, this offering was in the espresso bar refrigerated case alongside a wonderful watermelon feta salad and other upper-scale gourmet offerings. The product mix was very concise, but was interesting enough to likely drive impulse purchases.
Zoupa Noma: "Ready-to-Sip" Single-Serve Refrigerated Soups
In our research we discovered Zupa's "Farm to Bottle" USDA Organic Soups. These "superfood" soups are touted for their power packed nutrient profile due to the inclusion of the vegetable's natural skin into their recipes. Their colorful packaging is incredibly magnetic to health-minded folks looking for a boost. Zupa's website states, "Souping is the new Juicing." We haven't tried them yet, but we'll be looking for an opportunity to do so. Many companies are offering domestic and imported cold soups formatted in easy-to-drink bottles. Retailers will need to take extra precaution to ensure these items are refrigerated, handled and merchandised properly in the appropriate temperature zones. Check sell-by dates regularly.
Naturello Che Pasta Refrigerated Pasta Bowls
These items were so new they may require some time to enter U.S. distribution. From our understanding they are fresh pasta bowls heated within 3 minutes. Their sister products of soups, sauces, and other fresh items imported from Italy may become of greater interest to grab and go or specialty food retailers in the future. Keep in mind these solutions would require a microwave nearby to our knowledge. See Naturello website for more information.
Olli Meat & Cheese Sleeves
These handy single-serve hearty snacks merchandise easily in their box in a high-impact upright orientation. Check with Olli on any solutions that may possibly be shelf-stable to expand your offerings.
House-Made Flat Breads | |
What caught our attention about these flatbreads was their preparation and merchandising. Instead of using a traditional display case which may require more labor and limit guest questions or interaction with the product, these were packaged in to-go plastic containers. Guests would select their entree and hand to the cashier or attendant to warm accordingly. I believe this method in some circumstances could help speed wait times and shift some "labor" in the the check-out process back to the customer. There are positives and negatives to taking this approach, however, for stores without a display case it may allow for better visuals than simply using an overhead menu board or culinary imagery instead of the real thing.
Onward and Upward
Your product mix is what you make of it. A great curated selection of items to offer your customers will take time and effort to build, source and procure. The opportunity is in building a variety of items that will appeal to more guests and meet more needs along the way. Our clients regularly ask us to help them determine where gaps may be within their current offerings or to build a product mix in alignment with their retail food concept or brand.
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