A taste of Thailand
The festival of Thai New Year is just around the corner (12 to 15 April) and presents a great opportunity to profit from Thai food.
Thai culinary sauces from Uncle Ben's means you can make authentic Thai dishes, even if you have little experience with Far Eastern cuisine. Varieties include Thai Green and Sweet Thai Chilli.
MasterFoodServices has produced a new Thai CD containing ten recipes (starters, side plates and mains) as well as advice on planning your promotion. Examples of recipes include Spiced Thai Rice Cakes (Vegetarian), Kings Prawns with Sweet Thai Chilli Dip, Thai Green Prawn Curry and Roast Fillet of Hoki with Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce.
MasterFoodServices
Lamb back on the menu
Demand for lamb is on the increase, according to new figures from Meat New Zealand, showing a more than 5% increase for 2002 in lamb and mutton exports from New Zealand to the UK compared with the over 12% fall recorded in 2001. The total amount of exports for 2002 is 96,284 tonnes (cwe - carcass weight equivalent).
The recovery in 2002 reflects New Zealand's continued sensitivity to the conditions of the UK marketplace. Following the outbreak of foot and mouth in 2001, New Zealand exporters redirected lamb away from the UK market to the Continent. In 2002, shipments to the UK began to return to previous levels, in line with the recovery in the UK's export trade, as well as demand in the marketplace.
Meat New Zealand
Snack whack
United Biscuits (UB) is focusing on the foodservice arena with a £60 million marketing support across its KP, McVitie's and McVitie's Cake Company portfolios in 2003.
This is underlined by the appointment of Mark Bosomworth, the company's first ever foodservice director. He says: "By merchandising the right products and the right brands, we are confident that foodservice operators can achieve strong category growth."
The company's portfolio includes:
Biscuits: brands include McV, Penguin, Jaffa Cakes, go ahead!, Crawfords and Carrs.
Snacks: brands include Hula Hoops, Real McCoy's, Mini Cheddars, KP Nuts, Skips and Phileas Fogg. In 2002, the crisps and snacks category grew by 17% in foodservice.
Cake: products include Jaffa Muffins, McV Cake Range, Galaxy Cakes and Muffins, M&M Brownie and its latest launch McV Jaffa Cake Mini Rolls.
UB Foodservice
Noodle nosh
Udon (thick white Japanese noodles), ramen (for traditional stir fries), thread (fine stir dry noodles) and organic egg noodles are just some of the varieties available from Ugo Foods.
They are all manufactured in the traditional slow-mix way, kneaded and laminated before cutting. This means they do not over-absorb water, but remain firm and whole. They can be soaked in bulk ready for cooking off throughout the day.
They can be served with salads or starters or stir fried with other ingredients.
Ugo Foods Group
Frying tonight
Fryliquid from MirOil is a new liquid oil stabiliser that can reduce frying oil costs, prolong oil life and improve fried food quality.
The golden fluid stabilises the oil by preventing impurities from forming, which maintains the cooking quality of the oil over a longer period.
The user simply pours in a 7ml dose of the oil before frying, which is adequate for a 10 litre fryer for a single session (up to six hours). A typical dosing costs 20p.
Fryliquid is available in 1 litre packs with a small dosing bottle.
MirOil UK
How jammy
Nichols Foods has won a contract to supply jam portions to the Country Range group. These will include Assorted, Strawberry and Marmalade.
The new range of jam portions will be presented in the new Country Range packaging. Nichols Foods supplies Colombian Instant Coffee, hot chocolate and cocoa powder.
Nichols Foods
Souped up
The Knorr 100 Per Cent Soup concept at the University of Kent, Canterbury, has had a dramatic impact on the sale of soup at the university. Since its installation, the revenue in this area has increased by 98 per cent. The university used to sell an average of 15 portions of soup a week before the installation, but now that has increased to 150 portions.
The concept features a branded unit that serves any two soup varieties at one time. The design of the unit means that a wide selection of condiments can be offered to accompany the soup such as croutons, cream, chopped tomatoes, diced pepper and parmesan cheese. The current range of soups on offer include Pea with Smoked Pork Sausage, Tandoori Style Chicken and Beef Goulash, but the top seller is Tomato and Roasted Pepper.
Jeff Stoddard, executive head chef at the university, says: "Other benefits of the unit include the generous portion pouch sizes, the branded soup bowls and because the unit is self service, it saves on labour. The unit is bright and well lit adding to the promotion of the product, it's mobile and easy to clean."
The University of Kent is based in Canterbury and is made up of four colleges with 13,000 students and approximately 2000 staff. The catering operation consists of two large dining rooms with the capability to serve over 800 covers, two bar bistros and two café/baguette bars. On average, up to 2500 meals and over 1200 light snacks are served daily.
UBF Foodsolutions
New from the regions
Lanark Blue, a slightly sweet green-blue veined cheese made from Scottish ewe's milk, and Swaledale, a hard, brine-soaked cheese are just two of the new regional cheeses from Brakes. Other varieties are: Chatel, Ardrahan, Worcester Gold, Quickes Cheddar Truckle and Mrs Bells Blue.
Flavoured cheeses on offer include Wensleydale, Cranberry and Apple; Hot Chilli Cheddar; White Stilton and Apricot and Double Gloucester with Wholegrain Mustard and Horseradish.
Various Cheeseboard collections are also available - the Country House Cheeseboard Selection - a 900g boxed selection is new, while the British Cheeseboard Selection and the Luxury Cheeseboard Selection have been improved.
All the cheese are pasteurised and are suitable for vegetarians (except for the Luxury Cheeseboard Selection).
Prices vary from £8.75 a kilo for the Cheddar and Hot Chilli to £17.80 a kilo for the Lanark Blue. Products come in a range of sizes and most weigh about 1kg.
Also new from Brakes are two new ethnic prawn dishes. Sawadee Tempura King prawns are king prawns marinated in ginger and garlic and coated in a tempura batter. "Sawadee" is a Thai greeting and the product mimics this shape. A pack of 50 costs £31.65 (63p each).
Thai Battered King Prawns - Tom Yum are batter coated king prawns seasoned with freshly chopped lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf, garlic, chilli and shallots. A 500g pack costs £8.
Both products can be deep fried from frozen in three minutes.
Brakes
Spice it up
Snowbird Foods has put its own spin on the traditional meat ball by introducing an exotic alternative - the Kofta.
These 15g meat balls are made of minced lamb and flavoured with garlic, onion, cumin, chillies, black and white peppers and Eastern spices.
They are fully cooked so can be simply reheated in the microwave.
Also new is a submarine-shaped 60g Shish Kebab.
Snowbird Foods
Turn it over
Canterbury Foods has introduced two new savoury turnovers. The varieties are bacon and cheese and sausage and onion, which can be baked from frozen in 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven.
Canterbury Foods
Calorie free
Single Source has launched Splenda Low Calorie Sweetener, which can be used for sweetening beverages, as well as cooking and baking.
It is the first sugar alternative, according to Single Source, made with sucralose - a sweetener that is made from sugar and tastes like sugar, but does not have the calories.
The product is available in tablets and granular.
Tablets are in 1000 sachets, while granular are in 1000 sticks, 1,000 sachets, shaker drums 6 x 40g, drums 2 x 500g and bulk 1 x 1kg.
Single Source
Drying out
Food supplier Sunshire Saltfish in Hull is producing saltfish by using dehumidification equipment from Calorex Heat Pumps.
Andrew Barkworth from Calorex says: "What we do is recreate the natural drying conditions of a warm, windy, dry day when traditional fish, particularly in Norwegian regions, would be laid out on rocks to dry."
Calorex Heat Pumps
Get naked
Laila's Fine Foods has launched The Naked Chilli for vegetarians.
The 340g product contains shallots, green and red peppers, carrots, cauliflower and kidney beans in a spicy sauce.
Available in units of 12 in microwaveable trays.
Laila's Fine Foods
On the rack
Riverside Foods has launched Belly Ribs - thinner half racks of pork ribs covered in a barbecue marinade. The fully cooked products can be grilled, oven baked or microwaved. The price is around £3.56 a kilo for the Loin Ribs and £3.36 for Belly Ribs.
Riverside Foods
10th Anniversary Beacon
Beacon Foods celebrates its 10th anniversary with a raft of new ingredients using sweet peppers, yellow courgettes, mild chillies, winter root vegetables and a wide variety of fruits.
New product development work with chillies, which has recently seen the launch of chilli jam, has been extended to include honey-roasted mild chillies for speciality breads and other food products.
The company is also developing new pasty fillings using unusual ingredients such as roasted winter root vegetables.
Trials are also underway on grilled fruit marinated in alcohol for desserts and sandwich fillings.
The company has grown at a fast rate in the past 10 years from four staff in 1993 to 140 today, producing a range of 500 products.
Beacon Foods