Foodservice

Consumers could see new types of pizzas this year as the industry tries to boost sales in the face of the low-carbohydrate diet craze, a top industry consultant says.

Dave Ostrander, an Oscoda-based pizza consultant known in the business as the “Pizza Doctor,” said many pizzerias in Michigan are likely to introduce low-carb pizzas in the next six months. He also expects to see more take-and-bake products that allow customers to take pizzas home and bake them at their convenience.
https://www.freep.com/money/business/doc1_20040301.htm

https://just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=56778&lk=rss
The UK unit of US fastfood giant McDonald’s is reportedly planning to introduce a Quorn burger, adding to its vegetarian menu offering.

The chain has signed a deal with Marlow Foods, which makes Quorn, to supply McDonald’s restaurants with Quorn burgers, reported Marketing.

A McDonald’s spokeswoman said the company has been speaking to a variety of companies about developing another vegetarian burger.

Marketing activity for the new burger is expected to focus on the low-fat, meat-free attributes of Quorn, as McDonald’s attempts to create a healthier image for itself.

Hello Pizza. “I had a vision,” says Anthony LeCorre, as quoted by Leslie Chang in The Wall Street Journal. “God came to me and said, ‘Anthony, you will make 10-yuan pizzas.” And so he did, and he looks like his fledgling, Shanghai-based, three-restaurant chain, called Hello Pizza, is shaking up China’s fast-food market in a way that the multinationals, with their premium prices and hefty advertising budgets, may not understand. Conventional wisdom had it that “the high-end market” was the place to be in China … “But many found themselves competing against each other in a market that was in fact tinier than advertised.” Anthony, who is French, made that mistake at first, too — opening and closing two restaurants where his pizzas were priced at $2.50 and $5.00. Problem was, he was up against a bunch of others selling pizzas for at same prices.

“God” appeared, Anthony says, after reading up on McDonald’s, where, of course, success was had by “cutting prices while offering consistent quality and service.” So Anthony set up a new, factory-like operation in Shanghai: [Read more…] about God came to me and said, 'Anthony, you will make 10-yuan pizzas.

I see more and more references to soup and soup concepts at the moment… here is one from Cool News

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Soup News. About two years ago, Jackie Bergman of Southfield, Mass. received an e-mail that “stirred a soup appreciation movement in the Berkshires,” as reported by Dana Bowen in The New York Times. The e-mail carried the subject header, “soupnews?” and it was from someone asking about the soups Jackie used to make at a Millerton, New York, restaurant called Farm Country Cafe, which had closed back in 1998.

Jackie removed the question mark from the subject header, replied that she was still making 50 varieties of soup from her “tiny takeout store, Farm Country Soup.” Well, her reply was forwarded, and forwarded and forwarded again, “chain-letter style,” and orders for her soup started pouring in. Trouble was, Farm Country Soup is located “behind an 18th-century buggy whip factory” in a town that “is fifteen minutes by car from the nearest sizeable town, Great Barrington.” Solution was, “a friend offered an empty refrigerator at her office” as a “soup port” — or a place where Jackie’s customers could come and pickup their soup.

Darned if that idea didn’t spread, too. [Read more…] about Some like it Hot – Cool Soup News –

So what is it that on-the-move commuters are eating in their cars, on the train and on the Tube? According to Datamonitor, snacks and take-away meals account for over 38 per cent of the average British consumers expenditure on on-the-move food, while on-the-move drinking is mainly focused on tea and coffee, especially in winter. In 2003, Britons spent £1.4 billion on hot drinks, compared to £0.8 billion on both water and soft drinks.

[Read more…] about On-the-move snacking in the UK

While burger goliaths like McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s have offered products at steep discounts to spur traffic during the nation’s economic slump, Hardee’s has decided to go upscale.

Gone are the same small hamburgers that competitors discount at $1 or less, in favor of “thickburgers” – Angus beef burgers of up to two-thirds of a pound.

Still to be seen is whether consumers will pay more – and wait longer – for what Hardee’s promises is a better burger.

Full story at :

https://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BIGGER_BURGER_BET?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=BUSINESS

If you would like to see what is going on in the field of airline meals have a look at this:

www.airlinemeals.net

French consumers have been relatively slow to pick up on the convenience food trend which has swept though other European nations ? notably the UK ? over the last decade, but with the bit now firmly between their teeth, a number of companies are benefiting from growing consumer demand for ready meals.

https://www.foodanddrinkeurope.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=49072