High-Tech Rice
Winn-Dixie joins the retort pouch revolution with microwave blend of garden vegetables, rice, peas, carrots and corn.
Rice dishes in retort pouches are a hot new thing in store brands just now, and gluten-free pasta may be next. New packaging and new shapes abound; so do health claims.
When you’re in an argument, it always helps to have a good retort. In the store brand rice business, it pays these days to have a good retort pouch. Rice dishes in retort pouches are the hottest thing going in the rice category; the numbers may be small, but the growth is explosive.
Ready to serve rice, as it’s designated by Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), Chicago, IL, had private label sales of only $1.1 million for the 52 weeks ended 11/29/2009. But that was a 1,060% increase – more than a hundredfold.
Winn-Dixie, Jacksonville, FL, has joined Safeway, Pleasanton, CA, and Target, Minneapolis, MN, in jumping into the category.
“Ready in 90 seconds,” reads a callout for Winn-Dixie’s microwave retort pouch garden vegetable rice with peas, carrots & corn. There’s a similar callout on packaging for Safeway’s Safeway Select retort rice dishes and a Whole Grain Medley with Vegetables; and a smaller one for Archer Farms items at Target, which include an Indian-inspired Cashew Saffron basmati rice. Trader Joe’s, Monrovia, CA, touts fiber and protein content on its retort pouch multigrain pilaf, which doesn’t use rice.
In the more traditional segments of the pasta and rice market, private label pasta other than noodles showed an 8.9% increase to $334.8 million, according to IRI. Noodles were up 10.7% to $47.6 million, refrigerated pasta 29.6% to $21.7 million, rice 15.2% to $195.3 million, and rice mixes 11% to $20.9 million. Frozen pasta is broken up into several segments by IRI, rather than reported whole; the largest is ravioli at $29.2 million, up 11.2%; the fastest-growing is miscellaneous at $2.9 million, up 19.4%.
Gluten-free pasta in private label may still be on the horizon, but whole grain and multi-grain versions are all over the place. Kroger, Cincinnati, OH, has added ALA Omega 3 from flaxseed to its multi-grain pasta under a new healthy eating brand, Active Lifestyle. “Promotes Heart Health” reads a call-out. On the back panel, Kroger stresses that the brand can be “found only at this store,” and “helps you nurture the relationship between diet and health by providing foods that are not only great tasting, but scientifically proven to be better for you.”
New pasta shapes are also in demand, or at least some retailers are trying to create a demand for them. Casaecce is one of the items in an organic line imported from Italy for Whole Foods Market, Austin, TX. “Originally from the Puglia region of Southern Italy, it means ‘homemade’ in Italian,” the retailer explains on a side panel. “Its unusual twisted shape is the perfect sauce grabber and pairs well with all your favorite recipes.” Plus it’s bronze cut in the traditional Italian manner, which has a chic appeal to match the organic appeal of the durum wheat from which it’s made.
Health appeals and novelty appeals alike are spreading across the pasta category and across the country. Meijer, Grand Rapids, MI, has put the Extra sub-brand on pasta with ALA Omega 3 – there’s even a footnote that specifies 260mg per 56g serving, or 20% of the daily value. Kroger’s Private Selection brand includes penne lisce, which, unlike the more familiar penne rigate, has smooth rather than ridged sides. The Safeway Select line at Safeway, Pleasanton, CA, includes trottle, a tight spiral shape that, by sheer coincidence, resembles that of compact fluorescent light bulbs. The Irresistibles imported line at Metro, Montreal. QC, filini, sort of like angel hair but in pieces less than half an inch long.
Organic products are hot. One recent introduction at Loblaws, Toronto, ON, is organic spaghetti with Omega 3 under the President’s Choice Blue Menu brand. Shoppers Drug Mart, also based in Toronto, has gotten into organic pasta under the Nativa brand. Organic pasta is commonly available in the United States under private labels like Nature’s Promise at Ahold USA, Boston, MA, and even such regional players as Roundy’s, Milwaukee, WI, have gotten into organic macaroni & cheese. In refrigerated pasta, which is dwarfed by shelf-stable but is growing faster, there is also a good deal of innovation.
Linguine’s nothing new, but Delhaize U.S., Salisbury, NC, packages a whole wheat Nature’s Place version in six-nest packs – each nest makes a convenient serving. Besides being all natural, it’s billed on the package as a good source of iron. Under its Italian Classics brand, Wegmans offers specialties like Pork, Prosciutto & Parmesan and Italian Sausage with White Wine tortellonis; its linguine nests are lactose-free and fortified with Omega 3. Wegmans’ fresh take-out meals include Penne Alfredo with Chicken & Peas and Rigatoni with Braised Meat Sauce.
It looks like wheat pasta, but it isn’t: rice sticks at Trader Joe’s are billed as Thai-style pasta. They’re probably targeted at Anglo shoppers looking for an ethnic thrill, but Walmart, Bentonville, AR, is going after the Hispanic market with bilingual packaging for its Great Value line, including items like dirty rice (“mezcla de arroz estillo cajún”). Loblaws’ line under the Blue Menu sub-brand includes Rice & Lentils Espana, “a hearty dish made with San Andrea and basmati rices and assorted beans, in a mild, wine-flavored sauce, seasoned Spanish-style with herbs and spices,” as well as a 4 Rice Pilaf with white and brown basmati, wild and red rices. Under the main President’s Choice brand, there are specialties like Bombay Pilau and Sticky Rice for sushi.
There are dozens of specialty rices and rice dishes under the Archer Farms brand at Target, Minneapolis, MN, and other retailers are getting into niche products – Kroger has a 4 oz single serve pack of wild rice under the Private Selection brand. Economy products include Country Chicken seasoned rice mix under the Compliments brand at Sobeys, Toronto, ON. Topco offers organic long grain white and brown rices under the Full Circle brand. Paralleling the growth in specialty rices is that of couscous, a Moroccan pasta specialty – Roundy’s offers a garlic & olive oil version.
