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“If retailers don’t have a chef, they can look at our recipes online to get the latest ideas. Additionally, a social media site such as Pinterest is a great spot to find consumer driven food trends.”
— Lisa McNeece, Grimmway Farms
important to take the time to gain this under- standing. Also, take time to get to know the market leaders beyond the retailer’s produce buyer. Chefs and foodservice personnel bring another category of relationships to make.”
Produce companies also can benefit from a foodservice viewpoint on a quality front, according to Menu Matter’s Webster. “Retailers look for fruits and vegetables that are easy to ship and store. Dialogue with chefs can lead to a shift in emphasis to higher flavor, greater texture and improved appearance in terms of conveying fresh- ness, not necessarily perfect looking.
“This rethinking of priorities can have an impact on produce on the shelf as well as in prepared foods. The upside for produce companies in making this effort is that the volume into retail is generally greater than restaurants, except for perhaps large national restaurant chains,” she says
2. Trend share. Restaurants have chal- lenges that don’t hinder retail foodservice. For example, there are backroom capacity constraints as well as front-of-the-house table limitations, which affects product variety and anticipated growth, according to Jacob. However, “restaurants’ strength is the ability to start or stay ahead of trends.”
Trend-sharing is how the produce industry can give retailers an advantage.
“Produce suppliers can provide informa- tion,” says Hanson. “This could be how to prepare specific types of fruits and vege- tables and how to incorporate these into recipes and menus with greater variety and appeal.”
Recipes on websites are one way produce companies are doing this, says Lisa McNeece, vice president of foodser- vice and industrial sales for Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield, CA. “If retailers don’t have a chef, they can look at our recipes online to get the latest ideas. Additionally, a social media site such as Pinterest is a
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great spot to find consumer-driven food trends. This can help retailers move beyond a basic prepared foods program to some- thing more creative that can boost sales for small retailers and help larger retailers differentiate and better compete.”
3. Cut the labor. One of the biggest chal- lenges in foodservice is staffing, says Paul Kneeland, senior director of produce, foodser- vice, floral and bakery operations at Gelson’s in Santa Fe Springs, CA. “Produce companies can help by offering fresh-cut components. For example, beet salad is all the rage now. The ability to open bags of pre-cooked cut beets and washed arugula and toss these together with goat cheese cuts down on much of the prep labor while still producing a quality finished product.”
Mann Packing in Salinas, CA, has found crossover from restaurants to retail deli with some of its products. This includes the Simply Singles line of whole green leaf, red leaf and Romaine leaves, which makes sandwich-making easier, as well as seven different lettuce blends. The newest of these is RomaBlend, a combination of chopped Romaine and the company’s Arcadian Harvest petite mature lettuce that offers operators something different than chopped Romaine or spring mix alone.
“We’re seeing a lot of growth in more complicated and customized packs,” says Gina Nucci, director of corporate marketing. “All the individual ingredients in these blends make it harder for an operator to go out and source themselves and then chop.”
Specialty food distributors such as Baldor Foods in Bronx, NY, have addressed
PHOTO COURTESY OF WHOLE FOODS
this issue too.
“What we sell to retail prepared foods
departments is both whole and fresh-cut produce,” says Benjamin Walker, senior director of marketing and development. “Some of the largest volume items are cleaned and shredded kale, sliced and diced tomatoes, chopped carrots and cucumbers and shredded cabbage for use in salad mixes. We also do chopped squash and broccoli florets for salad bars and hot bars. In the future, we’ll see innovations such as cauliflower rice and cauliflower steaks taking center stage. Everyone is looking for affordable healthy solutions, and this is where produce comes in. In addition, if it comes from us, we have an SQF Level 2 certification for food safety, and that’s hard to do on a store-level scale.”
For retailers that want to offer meal kits as part of a prepared foods program, Baldor recently launched its Urban Roots Veggie Kit line. There are four Cauliflower Rice Side Kits, such as Tabouli Style Cauliflower Rice, and six Roasting Side Kits, such as Hot Honey Carrot Fries and Broccoli Cheddar Bites. Each comes with a simple recipe and makes sides for two or a meal for one.
“Retailers can pair these with a protein and merchandise as a restaurant-quality meal they can take home and prepare themselves,” says Walker.
Produce companies that don’t have fresh-cut operations can supply this market by selling to processors, commissaries or manufacturers that then create ready-to- assemble recipes for retail foodservice, suggests Technomic’s Hanson. pb