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Get ready for “thaw and eat” foods
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
From frozen sandwiches that don’t need to be nuked to pies and waffles that go from the freezer to plate, food manufacturers are racing to introduce products in the nascent “thaw and eat” category.
Why it matters: Americans have gotten used to eating more meals at home during the pandemic. Now that schools and offices are backing people up, they’re seeking easier-than-ever options.
Details: Frozen “thaw and eat” or “thaw and serve” products can be ready to eat in two hours or less — no microwave required.
- The latest offerings are aimed at adults who grew up with Uncrustables, Eggo, and other one-handed cultural touchstones.
- Nestlé is trying to propagate the term “smeals” to refer to small meals (or sizable snacks) catering to modern consumption habits.
Driving the news: JM Smucker Co. just introduced a new line of Uncrustables frozen sandwiches filled with meat and cheese instead of PB&J — on the heels of Nestlé rolling out Deliwich, a line of soft-crust Hot Pockets that don’t require heating.
- The two familiar brands are going head-to-head, both touting the grabbable, convenient, no-mess aspect of their lunchbox-friendly sandwiches.
- Uncrustables Meat and Cheese Bites come in ham & cheddar and turkey & Colby … and so do Deliwiches.
- Smuckers is doubling down on Uncrustables, building a $1.1 billion manufacturing plant in Alabama to crank them out.
- Nestlé says Deliwiches — which some are calling “cold pockets” — are “somewhat unexpectedly” proving more popular with adults than kids.
Of note: Kraft Heinz debuted its take on this product — Launch Box sandwiches — in 2019.
- Eggo unveiled its entry — Eggo Grab & Go Liege-Style Waffles, billed as “the first-ever Eggo waffle that doesn’t require a toaster” — in April.
- “Mornings are tough for families,” Eggo’s marketing director Joe Beauprez said in a press release. “We heard from parents that they often sacrifice their own needs, like skipping breakfast, in order to make sure their kids get a great start to the day.”
Thaw-and-serve frozen pies (from Marie Callender’s and Edwards and others) are also available.
- Europastry makes thaw-and-serve sourdough bread and donuts.
- And the Willamette Valley Pie Company just introduced a line of almond butter with fruit sandwiches called Berryfield’s.
What they’re saying: Thaw-and-eat is “a territory that, while it’s existed, it may not have had as many offerings that were targeted towards the consumer,” Nestlé USA Chief Strategy Officer Melissa Cash tells Axios.
- Cash refers to the “handheld space” and “smeals” as “an opportunity to meet the consumer where they’re at in terms of behavior.”
- With Deliwich (and its competitors), “you pop up and you grab something” — then you can get right back to work.
The big picture: Frozen foods underwent a renaissance during the pandemic as consumers hunkered down — and the sales bump seems to be continuing.
- “The rediscovery of the frozen foods aisle has resulted in increased innovation across the industry,” reports Winsight Grocery Business, a trade publication.
- Eating more meals at home is a “sticky behavior” that’s outlasting the heights of the pandemic — but these days people need more speed and convenience, per David Portalatin, food industry advisor at the NPD Group.
- “For some occasions, this means a trip to a quick service restaurant, but for others, we want to retain our new at-home capacity, just with some shortcuts or time-saving techniques,” Portalatin writes.
Fun fact: Smucker’s produces nearly 4 million Uncrustables per day, and says the demand for the tasty rounds, which debuted in 2000, is “unprecedented.”
The bottom line: While Uncrustables specifically recommends against putting its sandwiches in the microwave (or toaster or air fryer), some thaw-and-eat products could probably benefit from a dose of heat.
- We’re looking at you, Deliwich Pepperoni & Mozzarella Frozen Sandwiches.
Michelin Guide releases ‘Bib Gourmand’ best value restaurants in Northern California for 2022
The Michelin Guide has released its first 2022 rankings for California, revealing new additions to its Bib Gourmand list.
These Bib Gourmand picks don’t include Michelin’s famous stars. The French guide tends to reserve that designation for fine-dining restaurants with a high standard for service. Instead, Bib Gourmand winners are what the guide’s anonymous inspectors consider a good value — typically under $50 for “two courses and a glass of wine or dessert.”
There were just three Northern California additions to the Bib Gourmand list this year: Good Good Culture Club in San Francisco, an offshoot of the wildly popular Liholiho Yacht Club; Hilda and Jesse in San Francisco, a sophisticated brunch restaurant; and Jo’s Modern Thai in Oakland, known for pushing boundaries with dishes like barbecue brisket drunken noodles.
This year’s list is much briefer than the 2021 group of new Bib Gourmands for the region. That’s at least in part because the guide took 2020 off due to the pandemic. The three newcomers will join a total of 141 Bib Gourmand designees for 2022, including 13 from Southern California, to which the guide expanded in 2019.
The full picture of Michelin winners, including Bib Gourmands, won’t be clear until all the stars are announced. The guidebook does not issue the entire Bib Gourmand list until next week; for now, it announced just the new additions.
“We don’t release the full list in advance because people can connect the dots and it ruins the big reveal,” a representative wrote. “Think of it as an appetizer before the full meal.”
Still, in a press release last month, the guidebook did share a list of the 37 new additions for this year, though without noting their ratings. It’s possible to spoil your appetite by consulting that list, whose members are still in the running to receive stars.
Those star winners will be announced on Monday, Dec. 5, at a ceremony at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The choice of venue is a handy reminder of the guide’s origins: The French tire company released its first promotional guide in 1900 to encourage auto travel, declaring restaurants worth a detour or special trip. The company’s supply of rubber, once cultivated on a plantation in French colonial Vietnam, is now sourced from farms it owns and co-owns in Brazil, West Africa, Thailand and Indonesia.
Caleb Pershan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s assistant Food + Wine editor. Email: [email protected]
What a record-breaking Black Friday means for restaurants
Sales results from Black Friday and its younger sibling Cyber Monday may have surprised a few folks this year given the stubbornly high inflationary environment we’re navigating. To recap, a record $9.12 billion was spent online on the Friday after Thanksgiving – known as “Black Friday” since the 1950s – while Cyber Monday sales also hit a record $11.3 billion.
Notably, much of those sales were driven by the aforementioned inflation. That said, traffic metrics were also nominally positive, providing a fuller picture of consumer confidence in this strange moment. For Black Friday, in-store retail traffic rose by 7% versus last year, according to RetailNext. Placer.ai data shows some shopping malls, outlet malls and open-air lifestyle centers experiencing triple-digit traffic growth versus the daily average for Q1 through Q3. All told, the National Retail Federation reports that a record 196.7 million Americans shopped over Thanksgiving weekend – exceeding expectations by more than 30 million people. The total number of shoppers grew by nearly 17 million from 2021 and is the highest figure since NRF started tracking this data in 2017.
Doesn’t seem like inflation is slowing us down much this holiday season. But what does that mean for restaurants? Like everything the industry has endured this year, it’s complicated.
According to Fair Betting Sites, which analyzed data from Mastercard SpendingPulse and Adobe Digital, US consumers who were out shopping during Black Friday weekend spent 23% more at restaurants than they did last year. That number is likely driven by both inflation and the high demand for restaurant gift cards this time of year. According to Credit Suisse, the restaurant industry sells the majority of its gift cards from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. This period can account for more than half of the annual gift card sales for the average casual restaurant.
Good news, right? Well, simultaneously consumer confidence continues to dwindle, and November marked the fourth straight month of declines on this metric. So, maybe not “good” news as much as “mixed” news, which seems to be a theme this year in general.
That said, there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful, despite growing predictions of a recession. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index cited higher gas prices as a reason for November’s decline, for example. Since that report was released, gas prices have fallen and are now at their lowest level since February. Earlier this week, GasBuddy projected gas prices could drop below $3 by Christmas. Lower gas prices tend to correlate with higher restaurant sales as consumers balance their spending wants and needs.
Consumers also have plenty of cash on hand to better manage inflation than they have at some time. According to the Wall Street Journal, US households still have about $1.7 trillion in savings they built up during the pandemic, perhaps explaining why they’re not shunning restaurants despite double-digit menu increases. The National Restaurant Association reported that consumer spending in restaurants increased in October, the last month reported, while traffic also ticked up slightly versus the previous four months.
The association notes, “Looking ahead, restaurant operators are slightly more optimistic about business conditions in the month ahead.” Sticking with the “mixed” theme, however, those operators, while bullish about their sales prospects in the near term, remain pessimistic about the direction of the economy overall.
Friday’s jobs report may also provide more reasons for optimism, at least right now. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, restaurants and bars added over 62,000 jobs in November, nearly doubling the industry’s gains from October. Granted, the industry remains nearly 400,000 positions short of pre-pandemic levels, but progress is hard to come by these days, so we’ll take it.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]