New food products crash through 10,000 threshold

Prepared Foods, Feb, 1991

1990 was another record-breaking year for new product introductions. New food products were up a strong 12%; they accounted for most of the 9.8% total increase in 1990-the same percentage increase as in 1989. Of the 15 food categories reported in Gorman's Product News (GNPN), 11 were up and only four were down. Notable increases were observed beverages, condiments, and processed meat categories.

This year's grand total of food and non-food introductions was 13,2449.8% above 1989's level of 12,055. Here are a few highlights from the more active categories. Bakery foods

Although the oat bran mania waned considerably, there were still many new products with oat bran introduced in 1990. Examples include CPC'sS Oat Bran Sahara Bread, Burns & Richer's Oat Bran & Nut Bagel Chips, and Oroweat's Less Oat & Fiber Bread. The success of Kraft General Foods' Entenmann's fat-free bakery foods prompted similar lines from Awreys and others. Sara Lee introduced the fat-free concept to the freezer case via a Light & Fresh line of desserts.

Nabisco and Keebler continued to down-size existing brands; they introduced Mini Chips Ahoy and Mini Magic Middles, respectively.

Baking ingredients

The three big bakers-Pillsbury, General Mills and Procter & Gamble (Duncan Hines)-aggressively tried to show consumers that the home oven can produce healthy and convenient bakery foods.

Pillsbury restaged its entire line of microwavable mixes into Snack Cakes, introduced Swirls frostings with a chocolate decorator tube, marketed the first coffee cake doughs, inflated refrigerated biscuits into big-size Grands, and jazzed up its brownie mix line.

General Mills' Betty Crocker created Party Frostings for the color-minded baker. General Mills also began testing 94% fat-free cake and frosting mixes.

Duncan Hines is trying Delights cake mixes, also with a significant fat-reduction promise. Duncan Hines Cups were an innovative, bake-in-the-box packaging presentation for cupcakes and coffee cakes. Beverages

So-called "new wave" beverages continued to flow into the market. Scores of new varieties of seltzers, juices, sparkling juices, flavored waters and even a few new wine coolers were directed at aging baby boomers and anti-alcohol/caffeine drinkers. Tropicana and Capri Sun entered carbonated juice products.

General Foods' Maxwell House regained the greater share of the coffee cup with the introduction of such products as whole bean, French Roast instant, 1892 Slow Roasted, and an intriguing brewed coffee concentrate. AU the big roasters experimented with iced coffees: General Foods tried Cappio Iced Cappucino; Hills Brothers had Ice Breakers; and Nestle came out with Mocha Coolers.

Dr Pepper (and others) aimed for a piece of the giant Gatorade business with its Nautilus isotonic drink. Breakfast cereals

The "Gang of Six" continued to battle each other for share points in the highly competitive but richly rewarding ready-to-eat cereal segment. Kellogg spent heavily behind Kenmei rice bran cereals Oust as rice bran lost much of its health image) and Big Mixx. Ralston's fleeting character cereals were Hot Wheels and Jetsons.

Cereal companies keep trying to add portability to their taste, convenience, health, economy and variety attributes. Ralston is testing Breakfast on the Run (boxes of cereal and aseptic milk). General Mills is offering single-serving bags of Cheerios To Go, and Quaker is trying Goodness To Go, microwavable oatmeal in a cup that doesn't need a liquid additive.

Condiments

The flavor of the year" was "Southwest," as indicated by the many new salsas, picante sauces, jalapeno jellies, brisket rubs, Tex-Mex spices, and barbecue sauces.

Healthier condiments continued to claim greater market influence. Hidden Valley's Take Heart salad dressings quickly followed last year's Kraft Free salad dressings' success. Hunt-Wesson brought out Lite Shortening and Lite Pan Spray. Kellogg's Eggo and others lightened up pancake syrup by cutting down on the sugar. Knotts Berry Farm and Smucker's presented Light Fruit Spreads. Welch and others offered whole-fruit spreads. Salt-free spices, reduced-calorie salad dressings, and low-sugar, low-salt peanut butter all contributed to a healthier epicurean diet.

The olive oil express, which began in 1989, kept moving in 1990 with imports from Spain, Italy and even Argentina. New oils, such as Loriva Rice Bran Oil, International Marketing's Grapeseed Oil and Hollywood's Canola Off, began to "unsaturate" the market.

Spaghetti sauce leaders Ragu and Prego added new flavors to their lines, and Domino's Pizza Sauce came on stream at year's end.

Dairy products

Producers continued to "lighten up" every milk-based product from the barn. Scores of fat-reduced cheeses, yogurts, milk, spreads, dips and frozen desserts appeared. However, as soon as suppliers figured out how to reduce fat and cholesterol, along came the "fat free" juggernaut, led by Kraft's Fat Free frozen desserts, yogurt and cheese. Nutrasweet's much-heralded fat-free Simple Pleasures took off slowly, but fat-free frozen desserts were being launched by every major ice cream packer (Hood, Meadow Gold, Borden, Dean, Dreyers, and so on). Even classic eggnogs are now available in fat-free formulations. In December, Land 0 Lakes' 60% less cholesterol, 2% milk appeared-leading the way for more higher flavor/lower fat milks in 1991.