Freezing assets

A thawing of attitude about frozen food continues to be the recurring theme among caterers. Sheila Eggleston reports.

Over the last few months, a sharper perception of value by consumers has given many foodservice operators a lot to think about.

But British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) director general Brian Young says this probably did much to improve frozen food's status, a market currently worth around £2.2bn. Studies it conducted last year with the Manchester Food Research Centre and the Sheffield Hallam University helped to convince chefs of its value. "We've worked hard to dispel some of the myths," he says.

"I suspect it was a difficult year for everyone last year. Travel and leisure and full service restaurants were having a particularly hard time. January was worse because of the weather, and this is the time when more people should be turning to frozen food.

"The best category is QSR. Research in the last quarter highlights burgers, fish and chips, chicken and pizza."

Young doesn't believe the recession will end this year but he thinks the fear of the recession will have ended. "People are becoming used to living with the situation as it is today.

"Once we have a new government [in the next election], whatever persuasion it is, we will see taxes and public spending increase so that means the debt problem is still to come.

"When the next bout of pain comes along it will impact on the foodservice sector and it will have to be smarter to keep people eating out. All the discounting should continue; but people will be sharper about promotions – less money in them but a lot of noise."

One of the good things about frozen food is its long history of innovation, he says, and the industry is always looking for the next developments and new ideas, and suppliers and wholesalers are always looking at refreshing ranges. For example new entries for the BFFF annual awards are up 20%-25% this year.

"When people don't have a lot of money they go for tried and tested flavours and old flavours have done well.

People are not going to risk trying something they haven't tried before and get disappointed. But this won't kill innovation. People will just find traditional things even more interesting.

"An example is how meat pies have become really trendy. Companies such as Higgledy Piggledy have come up with some interesting products."

Senior marketing manager at 3663, Vanessa Millard, says the distributor is seeing the frozen market being driven by the staple food categories such as meat, poultry and potato products in the cost sector. "Chicken is selling particularly well with an increase in both proportioned and raw meat, possibly due to an increased emphasis on scratch cooking.

"Sales of speciality potato products – skin on potato wedges, hash browns, sauté potatoes and waffles – are also growing, meeting the operators' demand for products that add value by setting their offer apart from the competition," she says.

The latter view is echoed by the Country Range Group (CRG) which says the pressures to keep catering costs low while retaining food quality are still being faced, but that huge advances in the availability of well priced, excellent quality and convenient dishes offers opportunities for caterers to improve take up of their menus in schools, hospitals and the business workplace.

CRG has recently launched a dessert range that provides a simple solution for traditional British menus. "Traditional puddings are a hot favourite in this country and, perhaps during tough times, they have been growing in popularity in recent months along with a trend for all things retro," says purchasing manager Martin Ward.

Crown Foods says consumer confidence in frozen food has significantly grown as research proves that freshness is preserved in the freezing process and bacteria cannot multiply on such goods. Managing director John Pickett says IQF is one of the most requested features when customers are looking at new products.

The company has recently extended its range to include larger sizes of its bestsellers like MSC salmon and sweet potato fishcake and Simply Not Fried pollock to cater for secondary schools, universities and adults in the care and profit sectors.

Adrian Greaves, associate director at McCain Foodservice, says the Government's school food guidelines bring added pressure to those involved with the school meals service, and many cooks feel they are on the frontline between children and the rule makers.

McCain products that help to ensure guidelines are met, while still serving food children want to eat, include its Alternatives and Pure Potato ranges. "Before the guidelines were introduced, cooks were already under pressure, having to feed hundreds of children in a limited period of time.

McCain introduced its Alternatives range with the intention of relieving some of that stress," says Greaves.

He says caterers facing increasing financial pressures are looking for ways to cut costs and frozen food offers an ideal solution.

"Effective portion size control is essential to managing a school kitchen, and caterers can see how many portions a bag will give them. Frozen food remains fresh much longer than chilled or freshly prepared items, which means waste can be kept to a minimum. Frozen potato products are less likely to fluctuate in price than raw potatoes, meaning costs can be managed more effectively."

Lamb Weston/Meijer also promotes frozen food as a way of improving portion control and wastage levels. Sales and marketing director Phil Cumming says: "In comparison to fresh, frozen products are less likely to go out of date if stored correctly, so being able to hold stock for possible sales becomes a cost effective, realistic proposition. In addition you serve high quality food that will be popular with your chefs and your customers."

Because of these issues, the company has seen growth in lines such as its Britain's Pride roast potatoes and, for the cost sector particularly, Redskin roasted dice. These, says Cumming, contain 2% fat, making them a healthier meal accompaniment and an excellent option for the education sector. He says other products that work well in the cost sector are its Home Style mash potato, plus Veggie Bites that contain up to 56% less fat than chicken nuggets.

With regard to trends, Cumming says consumers are increasingly demanding and expect to see their favourite food all year round and frozen food can make that happen.

Plusfood's UK foodservice manager, Les Webb, says the ability to make frequent changes to menus means that even the smallest operator with comparatively low footfall can offer a quality, varied food offering.

"Ready prepared frozen products do not demand extensive preparation techniques and reduce chef skills to a minimum so that even an unskilled team can deliver a sophisticated offering.

Products of this nature require little more than simple regeneration and cook off equipment and this cuts capital expenditure costs too," he adds. This, he says, allows food to be served quickly which is a real selling point these days especially at lunchtime when the time customers have available to eat is often less than an hour.

According to Daloon Foods, retail market statistics provide an insight into the popularity of frozen ethnic foods in the UK and tend to mirror trends in foodservice. The latest TNS market report [52 weeks to December 27 2009] shows that over the last two years the frozen ethnic snacks sector has grown by 29.5% in value compared with a growth of 11.14% for the total frozen prepared foods sector.

Daloon's snacks vary from 190g and 150g for handheld to mini ones weighing between 12g and 35g. Recent products include a 30g chicken tikka mini samosa and a 22g onion bhaji, plus an authentic vegetable dim sum selection. More launches are planned for 2010.

General sales manager Simon Cliff comments: "Frozen ethnic snacks continue to be a popular choice for caterers as they offer excellent portion control which helps them manage expenditure and reduce wastage. This gives caterers an overall cost effective solution for their businesses."