Company Product Development Experts Bring 24 New Products to Operators That Reduce Costs and Increase Menu Differentiation
US Foods – one of America’s leading food service distributors – announced today the launch of its Fall 2024 Scoop. Themed “Bar and Grill and Beyond,” Fall Scoop highlights 24 new on-trend products designed by US Foods product development experts who leverage a wealth of culinary expertise, industry experience and data-driven insights to bring new product innovation to US Foods Exclusive Brands.
As operators remain concerned about rising labor and food costs and attracting new customers, the new Fall Scoop products help operators differentiate their menu with items that help address inventory, labor and time management costs. The products are also highly versatile across a variety of restaurant types from bar and grill to other casual dining concepts and beyond. In addition, 10 products in the Fall Scoop launch are part of the company’s “Serve You” product portfolio that features more than 3,300 US Foods Exclusive Brands products that offer plant-forward, gluten-free certified or clean ingredient labels with no ingredients on the US Foods Unpronounceables List1, continuing its commitment to create Scoop products that cater to evolving diner and lifestyle preferences.
“Our product development team takes great pride in creating innovative, high-quality Exclusive Brands products that appeal to today’s diners and can address a variety of operator challenges, which is at the heart of our Scoop product innovation mission,” said Stacey Kinkaid, vice president of product development and innovation for US Foods. “Collectively, our team brings more than 400 years of product development, institutional knowledge and first-hand experience within the restaurant industry to our product development process. They understand the ins and outs of a busy food service kitchen and the evolving trends shaping diner preferences to create the right products at the right time to help our operators Make It.”
The new Fall Scoop lineup is a culmination of research and development, customer testing and experimentation by US Foods’ in-house product development experts to introduce on-trend and solution-oriented products to operators. Product highlights include:
Chef’s Line All-Natural2 Cuban-Inspired Ropa Vieja: US Foods Product Developer and Chef Amy Bracco, with consultative support from Center of the Plate Specialist and Chef Frankie Ruiz, a Cuban cuisine aficionado, created an authentic yet approachable product, with cost and back-of-house labor savings in mind. The team started with a cost-efficient cut of beef that delivers on the texture and authentic “rope-like” strands expected with ropa vieja and added red peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, green olives, garlic, salt and pepper, bay leaf and cumin to bring the national dish of Cuba to operators. This product is sous-vide-cooked for nine hours to save the operator more than an hour of labor savings per case versus making from scratch and ensures the flavors of each ingredient are infused into the beef. The item contains no ingredients found on the US Foods Unpronounceables List1.
Chef’s Line All Natural2 Smoked Pork Butt: Smoked proteins require the right expertise, equipment and time – something independent operators and their staff may not have. After more than 20 years in the food industry, with a decade specializing in barbeque Chef and US Foods Product Developer Ryan Udvett, leveraged his expertise to develop a hickory hardwood smoked product that enables operators to serve a savory barbeque product without a smoker. Seasoned with sea salt, spices, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and brown sugar, the product comes fully cooked after being smoked for more than 14 hours and packed in a boil-in-bag for easy prep that will save the operator 40 minutes of labor per case versus making from scratch. This product is part of the US Foods Serve You portfolio and contains no ingredients found on the US Foods Unpronounceables List1.
Chef’s Line Battered Ricotta and Mascarpone Filled Zucchini Blossoms: Keeping to US Foods promise of authenticity, these zucchini blossoms are a classic Italian dish and supplied from their home country. Product developer Amy Bracco saw an opportunity for restaurants to extend the seasonality of these delicacies by sourcing zucchini blossoms grown year-round from Italian farms, which are then hand-filled with an all-cheese blend of Italian ricotta and mascarpone cheeses and then hand-battered. This item can save an operator 60 minutes of labor savings per case versus creating from scratch and contains no ingredients found on the US Foods Unpronounceables List1.
Cross Valley Farms Hibiscus Infused Fruit Blend: Armed with the insight that hibiscus is projected to grow on menus by 35% in the next four years3, product developer and Chef, Eric Clark, who spent years teaching culinary arts before joining US Foods, sought to create a modernized and versatile fruit blend. Inspired by the appearance of sangria, the ready-to-use blend combines diced apples, pineapples, oranges and mangoes in a hibiscus infusion, creating an easy-to-use ingredient that will save the operator 50 minutes of labor per case versus creating from scratch. The highly versatile item can be used as an ingredient in a signature chutney or compote, a colorful spin on fruit salsas, or behind the bar within a signature mocktail or cocktail or as a fruity addition to teas.
del Pasado Shredded Mexican-Style Three Cheese Blend: After a string of customer visits, US Foods Product Developer and Chef, Jeremy DeRango, realized that many Mexican restaurants were using less expensive, inauthentic cheeses in their dishes because of the high price and availability of shredded Mexican cheese. As a result, Jeremy combined three Mexican-style cheeses – Asadero, Menonita and Oaxaca – to create an accessible, cost-efficient, easy-to-use, authentic Mexican-style cheese blend. The highly versatile product can be used across various Mexican dishes.
Devonshire Cookie Butter Banana Pie: A modern twist on a British classic, US Foods product developer Maria Zannis created a dessert inspired by her favorite Banoffee pie, combined with the widely popular cookie butter, which is projected to grow on menus by 63% in the next four years3. The ready-to-use pie includes layers of cookie butter crust, naturally flavored banana cheesecake made with bananas, cookie butter mousse, naturally flavored vanilla whipped cream with ground vanilla beans and chocolate-covered toffee bits. It is pre-sliced and can save the operator 60 minutes of labor per case versus creating the pie from scratch.
To view all the new products featured in Fall Scoop, visit the company’s Scoop webpage at USFoods.com/fallscoop.
1 Processing aids and potential cross-contact during production are not in the scope of this program.
2 No artificial ingredients, minimally processed.
3 Datassential
