Kahiki Foods, Inc., a supplier of natural frozen Asian meals and appetizers to the retail market in the United States, unveiled three new products on October 12 at the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association Convention in Orlando, Florida. The debut marked the frozen Asian category’s first steam-in-bag meals available in North America.
Two of the products, Chicken Lo Mein and Chicken Fried Rice, will be sold in Steam & Serve bags. Both meals, weighing in respectively at 22 and 24 ounces, can feed two persons and be prepared in a microwave oven in less than 10 minutes.
“Steaming is a positive consumer benefit because it has the capability of delivering superior product quality with less effort and cleanup for the consumer,” said Scott Corey, Kahiki’s director of marketing. “It’s also one of the best ways to prepare frozen food, since it helps to preserve the flavor and nutrients in the ingredients.”
A third new product, StirFresh Sesame Chicken, represents an expansion in the company’s range of StirFresh skillet entrées, which were first introduced earlier this year. Each StirFresh meal for two can be prepared in a skillet or wok in 12 minutes, and comes with a sauce packet so consumers can customize the dish to suit their preferences.
Like all of Kahiki’s Asian meals and appetizers, the latest offerings contain no artificial flavors, preservatives or MSG. Each of the three of the new dishes is made with natural ingredients, including all white meat chicken and a variety of Asian vegetables such as baby corn, red peppers and edamame. They will be rolled out in select supermarkets and grocery stores beginning in February of 2015 at a suggested retail price of $6.99.
The new product launch is the first under the leadership of the Columbus, Ohio-headquartered company’s new president, Martin Kelly. He assumed the helm in September, bringing more than 30 years of food and beverage sales, marketing and executive experience to the job.
“We are focused on exciting and delighting our consumers with new products and packages that fill real consumer needs,” said Kelly. “By leveraging our entrepreneurial spirit, and laser focus on the Asian category, we can be fast and nimble in product development, and bring real excitement to the Asian frozen food category.”
Kahiki has made pivotal improvements in 2014 to better position itself for continued market growth, including a major rebranding of its online presence and company website Kahiki.com, and updated branding and packaging of all products.
Meanwhile, on October 1 the company announced the “How Do You Asian Night?” sweepstakes, which will run through end of the month. The consumer giveaway program, hosted at StirFresh.com, features a grand prize of a year’s supply of Kahiki StirFresh products (52 free meal coupons) to one winner. Ten runners-up will receive an Asian Night Fun Kit, including a stainless steel wok filled with four bamboo placemats, chopsticks, fortune cookies and two coupons for a free StirFresh meal.
