The trend toward convenience shows no sign of abating at this year's Food Marketing Institute's trade show in Chicago. Food makers are putting their efforts into developing pre-mixed or bundled foods that travel easily and offer consumers a greater variety of flavors.
- ConAgra offers two snacks in a tube that take their names from Hershey Foods Corp. brands through a licensing agreement. Hershey's Portable Pudding and Jolly Rancher Portable Gel Snacks come refrigerated in single-serve tubes and follow the success that cereal maker General Mills Inc. has had with its tubular yogurt snack line, Go-Gurt. The products are scheduled to hit grocers' shelves in June.
- Dean Foods is adding a new Double Chocolate flavor to its roster of Milk Chugs, a line of single-serve milks introduced in 1997 that gave milk the portability of soda pop. The new calcium-rich flavor, available in 8-ounce, 16-ounce and 32-ounce sizes, is being introduced in parts of the Midwest and Florida. Dean also said it is revamping the packaging on its entire Chugs line, which includes regular and reduced-fat versions, with a swirl design and bright new colors.
- Sara Lee Corp. is rolling out a new line of crustless bread under the IronKids brand. The bread, now sold in only a few test markets, is expected to be available in about 60 percent of U.S. groceries in July.
- Gel Sert, maker of Fla Vor Ice children's frozen snack, came up with its new Fruit Squeezer Snack Kit under the Mondo brand. Thanks to a distribution agreement with cereal maker Kellogg Co., the kit packages a single-serve fruit-flavored drink with a mini version of Kellogg Co.'s Rice Krispies Treats, which fits easily inside a child's lunch box.
- Gel Sert is also adding a line of tubular-shaped frozen ices for adults under its Wyler's brand. Available in Cappuccino and Mocha flavors, Wylers Coffee Ices are fat free and made with real decaffeinated coffee. Wyler's Fudge Sticks offer a version made with real cocoa and have just 0.5 grams of fat.
Moderator Comment: Which new products being featured at the FMI Show in Chicago do you think will hit it big with consumers?
We've got three orders for Double Chocolate Milk Chugs to go with IronKids crustless bread from the under fourteen set of consumers in this little part of New Jersey. [George Anderson - Moderator]