The summer has been a pleasant one for several reasons for prepared fruit and vegetable suppliers to the retailers, with the diversity of the offer that pretty much disappeared over the last two years coming back in with a flourish.
Fresh-cut herbs are becoming increasingly popular, with retailer offerings such as Sainsbury’s British Summer Salad Mix of ready-to-eat basil, coriander and chives, and prepared leafy vegetable lines such as washed and ready-to-eat spinach and baby spinach gaining momentum.
According to sources, spinach is very much in vogue with younger and more affluent consumers buying into the category. Washed and ready-to-eat product fits the bill nicely for these not so rich, but still time poor customers. Not surprisingly, stir fry packs also retained interest over the summer months and producers like Langmead Farms in Kent have seen an increase in demand for prepared spring onions and the like.
“People don’t want to top and tail anymore,” says one source. “For the price difference, when you buy a mixed pack, the value is obvious.”
Compare this to a year ago and it was a very different picture. Whether consumers were prepared to cook from scratch to save some money or not, the industry pre-empted that situation and pretty much made it happen. In the same way that organic fresh produce came off the shelves in some retailers at the start of the recession, prepared fruit and vegetable lines were minimised and the offer was diluted. Now, cauliflower and broccoli floret mixed packs and currently corn on the cob are again commonplace.
No doubt in an effort to make the most of the ‘barbeque summer’, The Co-operative has taken to offering ‘coblettes’ of five, which are a third of the size of a usual corn on the cob. Sliced mushrooms are also back on the agenda, signalling that the prepared industry is certainly on the way back up again.
Sainsbury’s is back to offering a full range of snack bags, such as sliced apple, sliced apple and grapes, and grapes on their own, while 100g of pomegranate arils are being provided with a fork inside, instead of part of a mixed pack.
Exotic mixed salads are including more diverse mixes again and perhaps following the success of Tesco’s pineapple stick, Sainsbury’s is now stocking ‘Pineapple & Mango Fingers’, which consists of two sticks of pineapple and one stick of mango, sourced from Ghana.
As the autumn days draw in, Marks & Spencer - known for leading the fresh produce retail sector in fresh cut innovation - has made sure that comfort food is available and recently introduced a new soup and casserole section to its ‘fresh & prepared’ range.
Customers can buy prepared Carrot and Coriander with Herb drizzling for the initial promotional price of £1.19 (eventually it will sell for £1.69) in order to make a soup at home, as well as Leek & Potato, and a Three Bean Casserole mix.
Also under M&S’ fresh & prepared range, cubed butternut squash, shredded red cabbage, both in 250g portions, and smaller 140g bags of baby new potatoes, butternut squash, topped and tailed Brussels sprouts and a Tenderstem broccoli, carrot and sugarsnap pea mix are available in pick-and-mix style at two for £1.30. The new Classic Veg Layer 320g pot also provides sticks of courgette, carrot, broccoli and potatoes for further culinary uses.
As the weather took a cooler turn last week, it looks like these products are set to make a difference. “The prepared vegetable ranges are flying off the shelves,” one supplier says. “The soup and casserole mixes have only just been introduced but are already very popular.”
Over in the foodservice arena, kitchens - especially in the chain restaurants and public sector - had become so deskilled that their reliance on prepared vegetables seemed set in stone. But in a surprise to many, top-end restaurants more than kept their heads above water. There is no clearer sign of this than the opening of foodservice company Reynolds’ development kitchen, with not a prepared product in sight. “It’s about offering a point of difference and products that chefs can be creative with,” says the company’s chef director, Ian Nottage.
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