Spotlight on Canada: Menu Makers
Responding to Aging Baby Boomers
By MYRON LOVE, QFFI Correspondent

BlueWater Seafoods tempts palates with this 340g serving of Shrimp Temptations.

Healthy eating is in, trans fats and sodium are out. But good taste is still a winner.

As Canadians are getting older, they are looking for healthier dining options. Frozen food processors are working to fulfill that growing appetite for food that is healthier, yet still tasty, by cutting out trans fats, offering options with low sodium and hitching their wagons to Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating.

“There’s a new revolution in the food industry,” said Vikram Bawa, marketing director for Nestlé Canada Inc., Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine division. “It’s called Stealth Health. And Stouffer’s is leading the charge.”

Bawa says that Stouffer’s is offering new recipes and has reformulated popular existing products to meet the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check criteria, which in turn are based on Canada’s Food Guide recommendations.

“The meals deliver a better nutrition profile while continuing to deliver the great tasting, home-style, comfort-food favorites that consumers love,” Bawa told Quick Frozen Foods International (QFFI). “The subtle integration of healthier choices into delicious favorite foods is the basis of the Stealth Health concept.”

Hungry-Man frozen dinner sales continue to rise in Canada, where producer Pinnacle Foods Corp. now offers the popular Sports Grill sub-brand seen above in a snack line featuring Beer Battered Chicken as well as Buffalo-style Chicken Wings and other typical bar food favorites.

Stouffer’s recently introduced Health Check meals include Barbecue Chicken (grilled chicken breast served with homestyle barbecue sauce and seasoned potato wedges), Grilled Balsamic Chicken (breast served with a sweet balsamic and onion glaze and garlic mashed potatoes) and Thai Ginger Beef (tender beef strips served with coconut rice and and a sweet chili-garlic sauce). All three 250-gram products, which carry a suggested retail price of $3.29, are low in saturated and trans fats. The Grilled Balsamic Chicken is trans-fat free.

Stouffer’s has also reconfigured its Turkey & Stuffing and Herb Grilled Chicken offerings to reduce saturated and trans fats. The Beef Pot Roast has more protein, as does the Meat Lasagna. The latter, Canada’s number one lasagna choice (according to ACNielsen ratings), also has less fat and sodium.
In seafood, Phedra Saltis, marketing manager for BlueWater Seafoods, reported that the company is emphasizing new shrimp lines with the slogan: “Shrimp has never been so tempting.”

The recently-launched Shrimp Temptations entree is a 130-calorie serving of shrimp with only six grams of fat and no trans-fats. Distributed in 340-gram packages, the product is available in a creamy garlic and herb sauce or topped with golden breading. There is also Alfredo Shrimp Temptations which comes with a romano sauce.

Another new item from BlueWater is an All Natural Salmon offering in a dill sauce. “We are the first national brand to introduce an all natural salmon,” Saltis revealed. The 330-gram item contains no phosphates and or artificial ingredients.

In Western Canada, the company recently introduced Cod Fillets with lemon and seasoning in a resealable bag. Eight breaded fillets come per 680-gram bag.

Pointing out that Lachine, Quebec-based BlueWater’s dollar share of the Canadian market rose to 35.5 points last year, Saltis commented: “The new items we’re launching in 2007 address the strong category growth of both shrimp and premium fish species, and consumer demand for high quality seafood items that are easy to prepare.”

Pinnacle Foods Corp., a USA-headquartered competitor of Stouffer’s which was recently sold to the Blackstone Group [see story entitled TV Dinner Maker Sold Again After Turnaround in Sales on next page], is also consulting Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating in formulating new Swanson’s brand products.

“Consumers are checking packaging to see if the Heart and Stroke Foundation logo is on the label,” pointed out Carol Johnson, director of marketing for Pinnacle Foods Canada Corp.

Johnson reported that there is a lot of price pressure in the bowl category, especially in the Ontario market. “Our Swanson dinners have been struggling a bit,” she admitted. “But our Hungry-Man dinner sales were up nine percent nationally last year.”

Early this year, Johnson added, Pinnacle introduced its new Hungry-Man Express line in Ontario. It offers consumers one-pound servings, which are double the competition’s volume, in a choice of four pastas – Triple Cheese Lasagna, Jumbo Rigatoni, Meat Lovers Pasta and Creamy Bacon Alfredo.

There is also a new snack line – the Hungry-Man Sports Grille featuring buffalo-style chicken wings or beer battered chicken or popcorn chicken with pizza sticks. The range is meant for consumers who want something to snack on while watching television.

“Our new products are being well accepted, although it will take time for sales to build up,” Johnson said.

QFFI was told that there has been a very strong response to Swanson’s new meat loaf dinner. The entry, she noted, has spurred renewed growth in Swanson’s sales.

John Yen, marketing manager for Michelina’s (the label is a subsidiary of Schneiders Maple Leaf Foods), another of Stouffer’s major competitors in the bowl/entree market, stated that there is a real dogfight going on among national brands for sales and shelf space in supermarkets. “We are doing well with our family packages,” he said.

New Plant, New Products

Fire Roasted Vegetable Pizza is one of four personal size, thin crust varieties available in the new Solo Gourmet range offered by McCain Foods. Produced in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada, the 130-gram product comes with a Magic Crisp cooking tray that facilitates crispy serving after three minutes of microwave oven preparation.

McCain Foods Canada is planning to rebuild its french fry processing plant in Florenceville, New Brunswick. The cost of the project, which will get under way in the spring, is estimated to be about $70 million. The new facility is scheduled for completion by the fall of 2008.

With the trend to health-minded eating, McCain Foods is using healthier oils and less fat wherever possible. The company recently launched Solo Gourmet, a 130-gram personal-size thin crust, microwaveable pizza range that that is ready to serve after just three minutes of zapping in a special cooking tray. The products come in a variety of flavors, including Fire Roasted Vegetable.

“We are very optimistic about the year ahead,” said McCain Foods spokesperson Tammy Dyment. “We have some very exciting retail launches, and are looking forward to continued growth in both our foodservice and retail business units.”

Sales also continued strong last year for McCain subsidiary Wong Wing Foods, a Montreal, Quebec-based producer of frozen Chinese entrees and appetizers.

“We could sell a lot more product if we had the capacity,” commented Julien Roel, marketing manager for the unit that was acquired by McCain Foods Limited in 2003.