Making meal kits successful

California-based True Food Innovations recognised shelf life is a key differentiator for retail meal kits to be commercially viable for nationwide distribution, which is why it has launched meal kits with 55 days of shelf life.

The True Chef and Chef'd branded retail meal kits feature long shelf life by using patent-pending formulations and high pressure processing. The clean label recipes are free from artificial colours, preservatives and flavours and only require 15 to 20 minutes of total prep and cook time, the company said. These include truffle butter sirloin steak, garlic herb chicken and saffron tomato chicken.

"We are setting the standard for the retail category through innovation, product development and technology; we listened to our retail partners and we developed products to solve their problem, shelf life," said True Food Innovations Founder and CEO Alan True.

The company recently completed the acquisition of Chef'd, previously valued at US$160 million and the leading brand in retail meal kits, according to IRI data. Robert Jones, President of True Food Innovations, said: “Our strategy is to provide retailers with a multibrand offering with the ability to provide meal kit options based on price, demographics and geography; we have cracked the code that has limited large-scale retail rollouts of fresh meal kits.”

The meal kits are launching in stores nationally throughout 2019, offering consumers delicious, natural, restaurant-quality meals made at home and purchased locally.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/bit24