Top Chefs to Help Schwan Update Menu
Minneapolis — The Schwan Food Co. is putting a little top chef swagger into its signature foodstuffs. The company, best known for delivering frozen meals to consumers’ doorsteps, has assembled a team it calls the “future stars of the culinary world” to help introduce new products and update existing ones. “We know consumer taste is evolving and we know that if we are to stay relevant to the consumer, we have to evolve our portfolio,”...
McDonald’s Shrinking With Surge of Chipotle, Panera Others
McDonald’s missteps are well-known. At a time when specialization is increasingly important in the food business, the brand has opted for breadth, offering everything under the moon: hamburgers, salads, yogurt parfaits, and fancy chicken wraps. And it hasn’t worked. In fact, that’s putting it mildly. Month after month, the burger behemoth has had to share that it has, once again, seen same-store sales drop in the United States. The...
Fresh-Foods Era Has Campbell Soup Cooking Up New Products
To understand the ideas driving the overhaul of Campbell Soup Co., it helps to consider how the packaged food giant describes the products it makes. Instead of “formulas and processing,” company leaders now talk about “recipes and cooking.” It is a subtle verbal cue that reflects what the company behind Campbell’s soup, Pepperidge Farm cookies and SpaghettiOs said is an “extreme makeover” to prevent it from becoming irrelevant in a...
Cleaning Up Papa John’s Menu Costs Chain $100 Million a Year
Papa John’s International Inc. is spending $100 million a year to eliminate artificial ingredients and other additives from its menu, underscoring the cost of the restaurant industry’s shift to more natural foods. The company removed monosodium glutamate, or MSG, from its ranch dressing last year and pulled trans fats from its garlic sauce. Now Papa John’s has homed in on a list of 14 ingredients, including corn syrup, artificial...
Consumer Confidential: Is Organic Food Worth the Higher Price? Many Experts Say No
Kristin DiMarco was heading into a Trader Joe’s in West Los Angeles the other day and knew for sure what she wouldn’t be buying: anything organic. “I just feel like I’ve already built up an immunity to anything that might be in my food,” the 26-year-old told me. Besides, she said, why would she want to pay a markup that can run double or triple the cost of conventional food? “I don’t think there’s a big-enough difference in quality to...
