Matters of Convenience
June 1997 -- Applications

By: Dale D. Buss,
Contributing Editor

  Today's consumer would rather pay in the deli than play in the kitchen. That's why many food companies these days are focusing on ways to tap into a trend that, despite the rather clumsy moniker - "home-meal replacement" - is adroitly taking over the supermarket.

  In fact, home-meal replacement (HMR) products are redefining the look, function and popularity of the entire convenience-food category, which once was stereotyped as fast and portable, but perhaps nutritionally deficient. HMR-product sales already are estimated at more than $100 billion and are, in terms of a market segment, only in their infancy.

  "The generation after the Baby Boomers simply doesn't know how to cook," says Jeff Sandore, vice president of retail marketing for Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale, Arkansas. "So there's really a need there."

  Evidence of the latest convenience-food trend is showing up at deli sections and refrigerated aisles of grocery stores nationwide. Delis still provide the familiar array of cold meats, cole slaw and breads, but are also expected to carry rotisserie-baked chickens, gourmet pizzas, pasta, prepared salads, and whatever else a busy customer may demand. And refrigerated sections filled with various HMR offerings are eating up more and more floor space in nearly every supermarket. Even the frozen section has polished up its products in an attempt to snare consumers searching for convenience.

Pack it up

  Consumers expect these edibles to look and taste like mama's cookin' or offerings found at a white-tablecloth restaurant; pack just as much nutrition; and require a minimum of labor and preparation time. Satisfying the market's increasingly voracious appetite for HMR is complex, and the biggest focus is currently on packaging.

  Cryovac Inc., Duncan, SC, a major flexible-packaging company, is helping manufacturers formulate and field HMR products. It produces packaging for fresh red meats, poultry, produce and cheese, including shrink film and modified-atmosphere-packaging (MAP).

  Extending shelf life is the key issue in the packaging of HMR products, says Al Williams, manager of applications development and support for Cryovac. Today's packaging can extend shelf life by several days - as many as 14 - he says, depending on temperature, sanitary conditions and permeability of the packaging.

  While packaging must be specific to the product, often the combination of various types of food presents quite a challenge. Unless foods are precooked, not one packaging material or type can cover it all.

  Some variables include the target refrigerated temperature and planned gas mixture in the product's packaging. In vacuum-packaging, the atmosphere is removed via vacuum, resulting in a tight package that keeps out oxygen, which is detrimental to pre-cooked-product flavors, Williams says.

  "Sometimes we insert a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture into the packaging, because carbon dioxide slows the growth of bacteria," he says.

  "Gases play a key role in the packaging of home-meal replacements," says Rich Biederman, food group marketing manager at Praxair, Oak Brook, IL, which supplies atmospheric gases. "In order to increase the shelf life of fresh, packaged foods, we surround the food item with an atmosphere suitable to the task. We remove oxygen - which decreases shelf life - and replace it with a gas, such as carbon dioxide. This type of packaging system is preferred to artificial preservatives, because the atmosphere is all-natural -and can be labeled as such - and completely invisible to the consumer.

  "With the trend in home-meal replacements toward chilled, prepared foods, packaging these items became a major issue," Biederman says. "Modified-atmosphere-packaging extends the shelf life of these products to nine to 15 days. There's a lot of chemistry here: removal of oxygen and insertion of hydrogen or nitrogen or other invisible chemicals."

Capitalizing on the trend

The demand for freshness puts a lot of pressure on manufacturers. Currently, most combine innovative packaging methods with formulation to meet the challenge.

  Madison, WI-based Oscar Mayer Foods, a unit of Kraft General Foods, was an HMR trailblazer of sorts among big-name food processors when it introduced Lunchables back in the early 1990s. These prepackaged portable lunch kits measure approximately six inches square and provide crackers, sliced meats and cheeses. Some provide a snack and a juice box. Currently, the company has just about completed a nationwide rollout of its sequel to Lunchables, called "Cafe Carryouts." These refrigerated meals include a sub roll or bagel with meat, cheese, and a treat..

  Oscar Mayer tackled atmospheric challenges when formulating the entrees and designing the packaging for its Lunchables and Cafe Carryouts lines. To ensure extra shelf life, the company decided to apply sodium lactate to its cured and non-cured meats in the two HMR lines; this substance usually isn't used with most cured meats.

  Otherwise, it relies on packaging to do the trick. Oscar Mayer seals each component of its Lunchables sandwiches in a separate modified-atmosphere compartment, ensuring that the heat seals between compartments are secure. "If you had some of the moisture migrate, say, from the meat to the cheese, you'd have some very unpleasant things happen in there" because of bacterial spoilage, says one Oscar Mayer spokesperson.

  Dole's fresh-cut salad lineup contains more than 20 varieties, including the Classic Salad, several Special Blend Salads, several Complete Salads, and the newest entry: Lunch For One, a fresh-cut salad meal in individual-size portions.

  Dole claims that - thanks to innovative packaging technology - salads are processed and packaged without preservatives within hours of being harvested. Kelley Maier, Dole's vice president of marketing, says a study by Margaret Barth, University of Kentucky, shows that the breathable film used to package salads might have the added benefit of slowing the amount of nutrients lost through exposure to air, so the vegetables retain more of the vitamins and minerals.

  In packaging its fresh-cut salads, Dole opted for specially designed, breathable see-through bags which allow the right ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide to enter and escape from the package, thereby keeping the greens at the peak of freshness. The bags are formed around the salad during the packing process, eliminating excess air inside the bag.

  Packaging fresh fruits and vegetables is a science unto itself. The key to extending shelf life in this category is to match the package's film-respiration rate to the produce type. For example, one might have high-respiring vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower; medium-respiring ones, including lettuce and cabbage; and low-respiring items, such as peppers and onions.

  The packaging technology used by Dole and others stems directly from the activities of such companies as MAP Systems International, Des Plaines, IL, which produces packaging equipment and materials for the food industry. "(Modified-atmosphere-packaging) is a proven method for retaining a product's taste, aroma, texture and appearance," says Roman Forowycz, vice president of sales and marketing for MAP Systems International.

  Forowycz says that in order to succeed in the quickly developing home-meal-replacement market, food processors must design products that appear to be put together in-store. "If consumers perceive the product as 'overly processed' they will not consider it restaurant quality."

Other solutions

  Many processors are looking beyond packaging to deliver products that appeal to the consumer. For example, Land O' Frost, Inc., a deli-meat provider in Lansing, IL, has introduced Express Meals: fully prepared meals for two, sold from the meat case.

  Land O 'Frost's approach was influenced by research the company conducted on the HMR market, which found that with a typical product having a shelf life of three to 14 days, "there seemed to be a lot of spoilage because the consumer still wasn't used to the HMR concept," marketing director Tom Rose says.

  So Land O' Frost concocted a new pasteurization process that, in combination with MAP and oxygen-barrier packaging, extends the shelf life of Express Meals significantly. "It's more expensive packaging, but it keeps thing fresh much longer than typical 'slackout' or clamshell packaging," Rose says.

  Tyson already had some experience in the HMR market because many of its chicken pieces, premarinated or otherwise engineered to appeal to time-pressed consumers, are being merchandised by supermarkets as 'fresh.'

  "We ship them in frozen, and we'll see some meat or store merchandisers thaw them out and sell them as a perceived-fresh product," Sandore says. "We don't recommend that, but we lose control over how they're merchandised in the store."

  For its new approach toward HMR, Tyson decided to introduce both a new, refrigerated line - called Gourmet Selections - as well as frozen Restaurant Favorites. "The refrigerated side is where all the activity is, because of the perceived freshness that is associated with a refrigerated product," Sandore says. "But we also feel there's a huge opportunity for frozen foods in HMR."

  To give Gourmet Selections the best shot at a convincing presence in the HMR market, Sandore says, the company decided to stick with its expertise in chicken and to partner with other manufacturers for the side dishes - the sauces, for example, which were formulated by the award-winning Mallard's Restaurant, in California. "We didn't see anybody trying to bring into frozen the favorite restaurant recipes of consumers, so we think there's a huge opportunity to capitalize on there."

  Tyson believed that it could still require some consumer preparation with Restaurant Favorites. "The consumer wants to feel involved with the meal preparation, still, but he or she only wants to do speed-scratch type of cooking," Sandore says.

Taking on the challenge

  The emergence of HMR has sent suppliers scrambling to develop products and processes that fit the niche. Take Quest International, for example. The Hoffman Estates, IL-based supplier is aggressively pursuing the HMR market in several ways.

  "Like every other company, we're trying to feel our way with HMR," says Chris Naese, Quest's business industry manager for savory foods. "Retail-product companies are trying to find their place; foodservice and grocery stores are too. It's turning the business upside down, and that creates opportunities."

  The company has responded to the HMR phenomenon so far with at least one specific new product line: dried-vegetable offerings called Culinary Advantage. "These are true culinary profiles," explains Matthew Walter, Quest's corporate chef. "With HMR, you can't get away with what the typical retail-products company offers. You need to offer people flavors they're experiencing, not in chain restaurants, but in small restaurants where chefs are updating things and doing new things, like roasted and grilled vegetables."

  To give food processors a new line of ingredients that would be consistent with consumers' demands of HMR products, the first challenge was formulating a convincing product.

  "We're not taking the typical approach of taking a roasted-vegetable flavor and just putting it in a marinade, because that doesn't provide any of the extra functionality that HMR requires," Walter says. "You'd only have gums, and starches, and the flavor, and so it wouldn't qualify as an HMR experience in the same way as if a chef prepared roasted-corn chowder for you.

  "Whereas if you take the vegetables themselves and actually work with them for your ingredients, you get the mouthfeel you need," he says. "There's a lot of value and science to what a chef does in a kitchen, what he cooks and what temperature he cooks at, and that's what we're seeking to replicate."

  For example, Walter says, part of what he wanted to do was create a mirepoix. This celery, carrot and onion combination comprises a cornerstone of good cooking for a chef, who uses it in beef or chicken stock used for making sauces and soups."

  Some mirepoix products combine carrot powder or onion powder or celery seed with only flavors of the true vegetable ingredients, he says. "But that doesn't provide the functionality of a true mirepoix, so why would you use it? Consumers want to be able to taste, for instance, the sweetness of caramelized sugar in the vegetables."

  The second challenge was to find a way to produce the new line with existing equipment at a cost that would keep the product price-competitive enough for food processors. One rule of thumb, Walter says, was making sure Culinary Advantage cost less than the labor and materials of adding the same grilled and roasted vegetables to their products.

  One problem, Naese says, was "to be able to get enough raw products in season to cover the needs for the year. In an emerging and growing HMR market, that can be really tough." One advantage that Quest has, however, is that it grows many of its own vegetables. "We try to optimize our raw materials and make our (ingredient-manufacturing) runs as big as we can."

  The second dimension of the manufacturing challenge was adapting existing processes to deliver the freshness and delicacy demanded by good HMR products. It partnered with western U.S. vegetable suppliers who could provide the produce already flame-roasted. And Quest has the in-house capability to sauté vegetables in huge kettles.

  Another advantage was the company's strong drum-drying capability. "We've always been able to produce very high-quality products via double-drum drying at fairly low temperatures," Walter says. "They're bright and nice-tasting products that retain the flavors and colors that are there after grilling and roasting. It's not like air-drying, where you're breaking down the components a lot more."

Freshening up

  Other new ingredients and technologies are emerging that might help processors looking for ways to increase the freshness of food products destined for HMR.

  Quest has developed another line of preservatives made from cultured dairy solids that Naese says "improve flavors" as well as extend shelf life. Processors can add the ingredients to sauces before packaging that component to accompany a separately packaged meat element in an HMR entree; or processors can inject the preservatives Alta or Per/Lak directly into a chicken breast before packaging. "Either way, these ingredients help deal with post-packaging contamination," Naese says.

  Innovative processing ideas also are surfacing for foods in the home-meal-replacement industry. Maine Freeze, Lubec, ME, developed a method for freezing fresh fish that doesn't destroy the cellular structure the way conventional freezing does. Tabbed "Trufresh," the process halts the natural breakdown of fish when the fish is only hours out of the water.

  A Culinary Institute of America taste test demonstrated that the Trufresh freezing method provides a quality of fish taste equal to, or better than, fresh fish. "The implications of the test are fairly far-reaching, particularly for the commercial distribution of fish," says Kevin Vandervoort, chief executive officer of Trufresh Marketing Group, Enfield, CT. "The test shows that it is possible for a chef, anywhere in America, to serve fish demonstrably better than the vast majority of commercially distributed fish, and keep strict control over portion size, cost per portion, and shrink. It makes sense from a culinary point of view, as this fish tests better than anything available to most restaurants. It makes sense from a business point of view, as it can be stored until it's needed - with no loss of quality."

On the horizon

  Home-meal replacements have soaked up one-third of the total convenience food/restaurant expenditure, and experts say the future continues to look bright for this industry. However, as new products and packaging help advance the HMR market, some participants say more issues are arising that the industry doesn't seem to be seriously addressing yet , including labeling.

  Although more and more HMR products exist on the market, no uniform labeling standards apply to the entire category. Some fall under the auspices of the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) and others may be considered "restaurant food" and therefore not require the same stringent labeling.

  "I see big inconsistencies in ingredient declarations on HMR products," says Naese. "Some have an ingredient deck; some have basic nutritional information; some have a product name and maybe, the weight. But there are huge inconsistencies, so I see a tremendous challenge there.

  "If it's not covered by NLEA, should it be? Will we get to that point?"

  Another very germane challenge is that, despite the proliferation of HMR entrees, consumers still must rely on the microwave to quickly put hot food on the table. And by now, the industry and U.S. consumers are quite familiar with the microwave oven's vast limitations.

  In today's fast-paced, high-tech society, consumers want meal solutions that are fresh, nutritious, and able to be picked up on the way home from work. That's quite a challenge, but food manufacturers and processors are meeting it head-on. Convenience-food sales are up. Home-meal-replacement sales are really up. And industry analysts say consumers will continue to demand better and faster meal solutions in the future.

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