Natures Way Foods (NWF) has heralded the success of its newly bred salads, sold through Tesco, as a strong indicator that consumers are increasingly opting for whole leaf salads.
The Seasonal Four Leaf and French Style salads have been bred in conjunction with Dutch seed company Rijk Zwaan and were released last November, originally using French product before switching to UK produce when in season.
The Salanova Batavia type salads have proved popular with customers, cementing their place in Tesco’s top 10 best-selling pre-packed salads, and come as the result of extensive research.
The salads are subject to a number of ongoing trials including days with growers, which NWF supplier development manager Sally Hutchings said was key to the product’s success.
She told freshinfo: “Bringing together breeders, growers, processors and the customers at the breeding stage has been extremely important and useful as you can ensure you get exactly the right product.
“We do a huge amount of consumer research and before the product was launched we had 12 weeks' interim research.”
Sarah Baldock, head of marketing at NWF, added: “In terms of research, people like it being a whole leaf, ‘forkable’ product. They prefer a less ‘processed’ look about it and it is still a neat cut that doesn’t have as much chance to be oxidised as processed product.
“The work and partnership we have had with Rijk Zwaan over the last four to five years has been excellent and the Salanova salads definitely have a bright future.”
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