The approach used to process the ingredients that go into products can make all the difference—sometimes enough that a manufacturer calls it out on the label and in marketing materials. The new all-natural Select Harvest line of frozen soups for foodservice from Campbell’s makes statements about improved flavor and culinary integrity. The line’s Chicken with Egg Noodles soup, “a classic with robust roasted-chicken flavor,” says Amanda Zimlich, senior research chef, insights, strategy and innovation, Campbell Soup Company, Camden, NJ, provides some background behind the claims. “Because we are able to blanch the noodles and put them in the base before freezing, their integrity—and that of the rest of the ingredients—stand up well. By being consistent in our blanching and shocking processes, we’re able to really control the texture of the ingredients.”
In Zimlich’s opinion, operators usually choose a refrigerated or frozen soup based on their storage setup. “But with frozen, I think you are going to get the best texture and the best color,” she says. “You’re able to blanch and shock and stop the enzymatic activity in the vegetables.”
Science also beckons with novel wrinkles. An anti-freezing protein derived from genetically engineered baker’s yeast, patterned after a protein in the blood of a fish that dwells in freezing Arctic waters, is an FDA-approved ingredient in ice cream. It creates a smooth mouthfeel in a fat-reduced formulation by allowing it be whipped at a much-lower temperature that usual without freezing into large ice crystals.
PACKAGING THE PROCESS
Frozen foods are on the front burner today, especially those that satisfy the growing demand for prepared meals that are tasty, convenient and contemporary.
Marie Callender’s Pasta al Dente line, launched at retail last spring by ConAgra Foods, Omaha, NE, uses a combination of innovative packaging, ingredient upgrades and process improvements to deliver chef-inspired Italian fare in minutes via the microwave.
The line makes use of an innovative, two-part steaming system in the package that keeps the sauce and pasta, with its vegetable and protein garnishes, separate. The sauce lies at the bottom of a plastic bowl over which the pasta and other ingredients sit in a perforated plastic tray. During microwaving, the moisture in the sauce vaporizes and steams the pasta and other ingredients, bringing the whole dish to final serving temperature and doneness. Ultimately, the consumer stirs the two parts together and eats. It’s the same method of steaming that that the company pioneered with its Healthy Choice Café Steamers line in 2008. Controlled-moisture ingredients help the products avoid issues with water migration during freezing.
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