The past year has been a difficult one for the frozen vegetable sector, with customer confidence taking a hit when dozens of products distributed by Greenyard Frozen UK were recalled by six of Britain’s biggest supermarket chains. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose and Iceland all recalled frozen veg, including packs of mixed vegetables and sweetcorn, due to concerns they may have been contaminated with listeria – a bacterial infection that can cause flu-like symptoms, sickness, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, even death.
In September, Greenyard announced it had found the root cause of the listeria outbreak following an extensive review of its Hungarian production facility in the southern city of Baja. A contaminated freezing tunnel at the plant has since been closed and the factory, which was closed during the safety inspections, has been reopened.
Frozen manufacturers may have feared the incident would dent sales, but the category has continued to grow. Value sales were up three per cent year on year in the 12 weeks to 7 October 2018 – the sales period directly after the listeria scare – according to Kantar Worldpanel. In addition, the frozen vegetable and frozen fruit categories continued to expand in the 2018 calendar year, with revenues up three and seven per cent respectively compared to 2017.
Looking to capitalise on this growth – the frozen vegetables category is worth seven per cent more than it was four years ago, according to Kantar Worldpanel – some of the sector’s key players have been keen to invest in new ranges. For example, Birds Eye and potato processing giant Aviko have both expanded their portfolios in the past few months.
In September, just a few weeks after Greenyard’s listeria scare made national headlines, Birds Eye launched a new range of frozen vegetarian ready meals called ‘Veggie Bowls’, hoping to capitalise on the rise of vegetarian diets. Each bowl contains two of an individual’s daily recommended five portions of fruit or vegetables, as well as up to 19g of plant protein, with recipes including Asian Sweet & Sour Noodles and Moroccan Tagine.
Alessandro Solazzi, marketing manager at Birds Eye, said: “We know that shoppers are increasingly looking for more vegetable-based meals as they look for ways to reduce the amount of meat in their diet. The Veggie Bowl range has therefore been designed with simplicity in mind to give consumers exciting flavours through modern, recognisable recipes. We are also giving shoppers a convenient option, as the bowls come as individual portions that are ready from frozen in just seven minutes and the customer response has been really positive.”
Earlier in 2018, Aviko, one of the four largest potato processors in the world, launched a new range of fries for the takeaway sector, known as Premium Crunch Fast Food Fries, that are designed to stay fresh and crunchy for longer. “With a thicker coating, the new fries are perfect for home delivery packaging, will arrive without any breakage or loss of heat, and will also remain satisfyingly crunchy,” said Aviko’s commercial director for the UK and Ireland, Mohammed Essa. Available in two varieties, Crunch Shoestring 7mm and Crunch 9.5mm, the new fries are aimed at boosting fast-food operators’ profits, as well as catering for gluten-free diets since they have a rice-flour-based coating.
In addition to these launches from two of the sector’s most established companies, other fresh produce companies have been finding their feet in frozen, not least Tenderstem. Last January the premium brassica brand launched Frozen Tenderstem after almost a decade in development. The product is now also available from Ocado in a 250g bag – slightly smaller than the 270g pack sold at Iceland.
“We launched Frozen Tenderstem to extend our product range to valued customers and to give customers who prefer the frozen format, with its longer shelf life and easy portioning, a way to enjoy this premium brassica at a great value price,” says Coregeo marketing manager Theresa Richards. “Frozen Tenderstem offers consumers more flexibility. It retains all the qualities that the UK consumer has come to expect from Tenderstem – by freezing at the point of harvest all the nutrients and vitamins present in raw Tenderstem are retained.”
The decision to add the product to Tenderstem’s portfolio was also driven by a rise in the number of single-person households, Richards explains – since the stems are individually frozen, they can be easily divided into portions and defrosted.
In its first year on the market Frozen Tenderstem has fared well, with the brassica brand saying the launch contributed to a 17 per cent volume sales rise on Tenderstem products overall in 2018. In addition, the product has won acclaim from industry experts, being named Best New Vegetable-Based Product in the annual British Frozen Food Federation Awards last year.
This success has prompted the decision to launch the product in Europe too. The frozen stems will be sold under Tenderstem’s European brand name Bimi, which brand marketer Coregeo bought the rights to in 2016. “Bimi has been well received since its launch and the addition of a premium frozen product will give consumers greater choice and flexibility,” says Richards.
