Kerry launches ‘Great Culinary Taste’
The concept is intended to help create dishes inspired by the market, fast-track innovation and reduce complexity.
Great Culinary Taste aims to take the ingredients prepared-meal manufacturers already have available and enable them to enhance the taste of existing consumer favorites or add to their range by creating other product variants including more authentic and ethnic dishes.
Varied range
The Great Culinary Taste range includes plant proteins, natural stocks, infused oils, natural flavors, DairySource-Cream Replacer, natural extracts and marinades, pastes and glazes.
Kerry said its latest research shows more than 70% of European consumers now check the back of pack labeling when shopping for groceries, with 73% of consumers looking for more natural ingredients in their prepared meals. They added 42% of consumers say they are highly influenced by products that claim to be authentic, homemade or made with real ingredients.
Grace Keenan, Kerry marketing manager, savoury, said informed consumers are demanding more from the foods they eat, but taste remains a key driver of consumer choice.
They want simple, transparent ingredients and reassurances that what they are buying is good for them and their families. This creates complexity for the developers of prepared meals, who need to create taste experiences, at scale and without compromising on labelling or nutritionals.
Keeping costs down
Thomas Duffin, development chef, Kerry Taste & Nutrition, said Kerry’s chefs from around Europe have developed a toolkit that can stretch the ingredients already available in a development kitchen to produce prepared meal variants and drive costs even lower by maximizing what is already available.
“This approach can help manufacturers introduce a new prepared meal to the market, reinvigorate an existing consumer favorite, or create a richer, more premium taste experience,” Duffin said.
