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The category is seeing launches focused on health and wellness, convenience and clean label.
Rustica Foods has added a Detroit-style pizza line to its portfolio of frozen pizza offerings. Featuring a dough that is like focaccia or Sicilian-style doughs, the pizzas come in double pepperoni, four cheese and garlic, meat lovers and deluxe varieties.
Frozen food manufacturer Amy’s Kitchen introduced its first breakfast category products with burritos, wraps and entrees. The breakfast products include California scramble, Mexican scramble and tofu scramble entrees, each with 20 grams or more of protein; a scramble wrap and a gluten- and dairy-free tofu scramble wrap; and a ranchero burrito.
“We’re making it easier for families to start their day with a wholesome, delicious breakfast made from real, organic ingredients,” said Fred Scarpulla, chief culinary officer at Amy’s Kitchen. “Our new frozen breakfast line delivers convenience, but with the homemade taste you’d expect from your own kitchen.”
Tyson Foods, Inc. added to its line of chicken nuggets inspired by American football teams with Dallas Cowboys Nuggets. Shaped like the team’s star logo, the nuggets are formulated with chicken, contain 11 grams of protein per serving and can be cooked and ready within 10 minutes.
“Everyone knows that good food and football go hand in hand, so we hope the Tyson Dallas Cowboys Nuggets find a place on game-day menus across the region,” said Jerry Jones, Cowboys owner, president and general manager.
Healthy Choice, a Conagra Brands, Inc. brand, unveiled two “GLP-1 friendly” products. The offerings, Healthy Choice Café Steamers and Healthy Choice Simply Steamers, are formulated to be high in protein, low in calories and a good source of fiber.
“The increased use of GLP-1 medications presents an exciting opportunity to support Americans managing diabetes and weight loss, as well as those seeking to lead a healthier lifestyle,” said Bob Nolan, vice president of demand science at Conagra Brands.
Premier Nutrition Co., LLC and De Wafelbakkers launched a series of protein-centric frozen breakfast products. The brand’s protein waffles, available in plain and chocolate chip varieties, contain 13 to 14 grams of protein per serving. The miniature pancakes line offers 15 grams of protein per 11-pancake serving.
Pitaya Foods launched a collection of clean label smoothie pops. Formulated with five ingredients, including a half serving of fruit, the pops come in acai and blueberry, dragon fruit and mango, and passion fruit and peach flavors.
“This new line addition of the smoothie pops is a natural extension of our core products as we want to ensure consumers can enjoy healthy, delicious and convenient products made from only premium ingredients for themselves and their kids at all times of the day, without any guilt of not making food from scratch or compromising on quality or nutrition,” said Chuck Casano, chief executive officer and co-founder of Pitaya Foods.
Big Mozz expanded its clean label frozen mozzarella stick portfolio with super ranch and flamin’ mozz offerings. The former variety features a buttermilk ranch coating, and the latter are made with a jalapeño pepper seasoning.
“These bold, flavor-packed creations aren’t just new — they’re here to spice up what’s been a sleepy category for too long,” said Matt Gallira, founder of Big Mozz.
Plant-based foods company Daring entered the frozen food category with a vegetarian entrée line. Daring’s Buffalo macaroni and cheese bowl is formulated with red peppers and the company’s spicy Buffalo wings, and the queso burrito bowl blends rice, cheddar cheese, red peppers, sweet corn and black beans.
Green Giant debuted three frozen sides: crispy smashed potatoes, corn cob bites and veggie ramen vegetable offerings. Intended as an easy-to-prepare item, the potatoes come in garlic Parmesan and sea salt and black pepper flavors. The corn cob product features 1-inch cuts of corn on the cob in flavors like butter, salt and pepper and Mexican-style street corn. Green Giant’s vegetable ramen comes in varieties like chicken flavored, beef flavored, garlic soy and spicy chicken flavored.
As part of the launch, the company also expanded its Veggies & Rice line, with broccoli pilaf and asparagus, pea and mushroom risotto, and its Roasting Veggies line, with tri-colored potatoes and broccoli and roasted red potatoes.
More than 400 products were introduced at the annual event.
Launches over the last year include white chocolate cookies, Pop’ums pretzel snacks and more.