Versatile options menu refresh and to go snacks.

Versatile options

With many consumers having been out of the habit of buying their regular, to go snacks and food to go items in recent times, and now looking for something new and different when they do, many operators, especially cafés, have taken the opportunity to re-evaluate what they sell, as well as the way they prepare and serve them.

MULTI-PURPOSE

When it comes to serving up hot snacks and food to go items, a commercial microwave is utilised by many cafés and coffee shops to help expand and optimise their menu, as well as offer their customers a menu they might not otherwise be able to do.

In the case of Panasonic’s NE-SCV2 speed convection oven, for instance, it can replace the need for several items of equipment as it will grill, toast, bake, re-heat, fry, poach, etc., and doesn’t need extraction, so can be located anywhere, even in the smallest of kitchens enabling the traditional café choices of warm pastries with a crisp finish (it’s stackable too).

Julian Urrutia (main picture) is catering manager for Artizian, a boutique contract caterer. He and his team cater for the 800 personnel, mainly 25-35 year olds, who occupy the building from the Skylobby Café, the only catering facility on site. They serve around 320 breakfasts and lunches every day; the majority during the morning.

Julian Urrutia says his main objectives are to ensure a smooth service for customers, making sure the standard of food is always high, while being innovative and on-trend. “One of our biggest challenges is keeping customers on site so we need to stay up to date with the latest concepts on the high street and ensure our entire offer is competitive, from speed of service to style of food served,” he says.

“This is not without its obstacles; we have limited space, we are in an open plan area with no extraction and queues can build quickly on busy days. Our most popular items are hot, freshly prepared grab and go items such as the ubiquitous Panini and toasties but our homemade chicken fajita and taco beef wraps, are among the top sellers.”

Prior to using the Panasonic SCV2, the team had been coping with a panini contact grill which was not only slow, it created smoke and a lot of smells and the food was always presented squashed flat. However, the

Panasonic SCV2 has now helped to improve the service.

“Initially there were a few considerations that we had to overcome; the SCV-2 needs to operate with a 16 Amp commando plug, but we presented our case to the client and they bought into the potential benefits and agreed to have the power supply installed for us,” says Julian Urrutia.

“Since then, the benefits have been noted, one of those being how fast it cooks and with the internal grill, it also browns and produces a crisp finish, so customers are served quicker and the quality of the food is much better - nothing is squashed anymore! Thanks to the built-in catalytic converter, the SCV2 has no need for external ventilation, there is no smoke and no strong smells either. This was important to our client as we are in an open atrium, with offices all around.

“We have been able to improve our service and enhance our menu, Panasonic’s sales development chef, having worked with us on developing the menu offer. As a result, we’ve been able to include items on the menu that we couldn’t previously! I would recommend this oven to others, its performance has exceeded expectations, our customers have commented on the improvements and our client has noticed the reduction in queue time during busy periods.”

MINDFUL SNACKING

“The food to go sector is expected to not only recover to its pre-pandemic boom but in the future is likely to exceed those levels,” observes Helen Yates, the founder of carrot-based, chocolate-covered biscuit snack Rootles.

“The Lumina Intelligence UK Food To Go Market Report 2021 forecasts growth of 31.6% to £15.3bn in 2021, which will be followed by wider recovery and growth that will reach a value of £22.6bn in 2024. The coffee shop and café sector is expected to be one of the sectors that leads the charge in this recovery, so it’s well worth reviewing your food to go menu.

“Be mindful of the latest trends in food to go and snacking. The pandemic has brought a greater focus on health and well-being, but consumers are also keen to treat themselves. So, choose snacks that are tempting and desirable

but also have health benefits too. We created Rootles to be the perfect feel-good snack - a new concept in the snack bar sector, it is believed to be the first, and only, indulgent sweet treat that is vegetable based to hit the impulse snacking category.

“Currently available in two flavours, dark chocolate and milk chocolate, each pack of Rootles contains three crunchy carrot biscuit fingers smothered in delicious chocolate. And at 120 calories per pack, has fewer calories than many other snack bars because the biscuits are naturally sweetened with nutritious root veggies.

“Baked with over 35% root veg and featuring carrot, along with a dash of sweet potato, Rootles are high in fibre and contain less sugar and fat than many chocolate snacks. Their eye-catching packaging makes them stand out from the crowd and they are sure to go down well with customers throughout the day – from morning into the afternoon and evening. Team them as part of a hot drink and snack deal or a lunchtime meal-deal to make the most of upselling.

“Consumers are looking for healthier snacks, particularly in the impulse snacking and food to go sector, but they don’t expect

to compromise on taste or texture and still want to treat themselves. Veg has been added to cakes for a long time, but at Rootles we have taken the concept a stage further to make unconventional and tempting chocolate snack!”

INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED

Fresh Fayre, part of the newly formed Sysco Speciality Group, says that it has seen a marked increase in sales of individually wrapped items right across its range, from snacks to soups, cakes to samosas.

“As a result of hygiene concerns related to the manual handling of food during the pandemic consumers are defi nitely favouring individually wrapped products,” says Sysco speciality group trade marketing manager, Caroline Bartrop.

“So, as well as traybakes, which require a fair amount of manual handling, we have added individually wrapped items that require little in the way of handling, are viewed as being less of a risk by consumers, and are easier for our customers to sell, especially if they also happen to be short staffed.

“Among the products that have sold particularly well are single serve soups, grab and go packs of samosas, and spring rolls. We have also seen a big increase in sales of our wrapped and fi lled naan breads which can be cooked in a microwave in just three minutes and come in a variety of meat and vegetarian options.

“During the pandemic we have been working very closely with a number of universities to create ‘isolation boxes’ for students who need to self-isolate. These contain a selection of long life products such as individually wrapped drinks, fl apjacks, muffi ns, single serve soups and fi lled naans.”

To help its customers comply with Natasha’s Law, Fresh Fayre reports that it has also partnered with a provider of a cloud-based labelling system which holds technical data on all its products. Thus, if a customer wants to make a sandwich that is designated as PPDS (pre-packed for direct sale), and uses Fresh Fayre ingredients, they can simply log on to the service (which costs £10 per month), put in the details of the ingredients being used and the system will automatically create Natasha’s Law compliant labels, containing all the relevant information that they can stick to the fi nished product.

New nuts for…

Sun Valley – one of the UK’s largest and best known independent suppliers of peanuts and nut products – has expanded its Nuts For selection for food to go. The ‘rebellious’ snacking brand targeting younger, high-snacking consumers has added three new fl avours to its range.

New Protein Pick-up and Berry Boost are both vegan, and a source of plant protein as well as copper. The third addition - Simply Dip’d Honey Cashews and Peanuts - offers the sweet taste of honey roasted nuts with more honey and less sugar than average honey-roasted varieties, say the company. The new SKU sits alongside repackaged Simply Dip’d Dark Chocolate Almonds and joins savoury nut snack mixes Punchy Smoked Paprika and Indian Spice Infusion, innovative sweet mixes Rocky Road Riot and Chocolate Brownie Chaos, which combine fruit, nuts and confectionery for a fun, healthier treat (the fl avours come in single serve 30-35g bags).

“With demand growing at pace for healthy and exciting snacks, operators stocking the range can really stand out as a destination for healthy, fl avourful and fun products. The range boasts impressive product benefi ts including high protein and fi bre content plus vegan credentials, but they also make delicious snacks for anyone looking for a treat with a whole lot of fl avour,” says Sun Valley marketing manager Alison Robson.