An imported pizza range from Italy and frozen fruit bars packed in Oregon are winners in Kosherfest 2015’s New Product competition. Bayonne, New Jersey, USA-based Kayco took the top prize in the Frozen Entrees & Meal Components category with its Tuscanini Premium Pizza offerings, while Boulder, Colorado-headquartered Cool Frootz, LLC beat all rivals in the Frozen Desserts field with its Froozer assortment of all natural frozen whole fruit treats distributed in retail boxes containing six 57-gram tubes.
The Best in Show winner, which also received top honors in the Packaged Meats category, was refrigerated Jack’s Gourmet BBQ Pulled Beef Brisket from Jack’s Gourmet of Brooklyn, New York. Hundreds of products took part in the competition, all of which will be on display at the Kosherfest trade show, billed as the world’s biggest B2B event for the kosher food and beverage industry, November 10-11, at the Meadowlands Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Regarded as the world’s largest distributor of kosher and specialty foods with more than 100 brands in its catalog, Kayco was formed by the merger of Kedem, Kenover Marketing and B&W Foods. Its thin-crust Tuscanini Premium Handmade Pizza offerings feature four wood-fired classics as well as two flatbread options. All are certified Kosher by the OU.
Selling at suggested retail price points ranging from $5.99 – $9.49 are: Classico Margherita, Four Cheese Pizza (Mozzarella, Emmental, Cheddar and Gouda), Mushroom (each weighing in at 14.1 ounces), and Roasted Vegetable Pizza (15 ounces). The flatbread recipes are Margherita and Pomodorini (8 ounces) and a seven-ounce Mushroom-topped specialty pie.
“Tuscanini pizzas are something entirely new. We strive to be different and not duplicate what’s already out there,” said Harold Weiss, executive vice president of Kayco. “In terms of kosher, Tuscanini is unequalled, offering a gourmet, all natural choice for our customers. It’s the high end line of Italian pizza.”
Charles Herzog, who heads up the company’s new product development team, added: “There are several brands of kosher pizza, but none truly rises to the premium tier as does our new Tuscanini brand. This is the first and only real Italian kosher pizza on the market today. The dough is hand-stretched and baked in a wood-fired brick oven using only the finest Italian ingredients. It’s lighter to digest, and offers a finer texture and richer flavor.”
Froozer’s Winning Flavors to Savor
The Kosherfest New Product Competition panel of judges, which included Jamie Geller of Joy of Kosher and Gitel Leibler of Quality Frozen Foods, was sweetly – and naturally – impressed with Froozer frozen snacks made from 100% whole fruits and vegetables. The producer’s proprietary technology maintains and fuses fibers for maximum nutrition and converts raw material into a smooth, creamy texture. The result is a highly nutritious premium product that tastes like soft-serve frozen yogurt.
Three flavors are now in retail distribution:
- Strawbanana Bliss, a good source of vitamin C, providing 15% of the recommended daily intake in each 40-calorie serving. Ingredients are grapes, strawberries, bananas and guar/acacia (a natural source of fiber).
- Tropical Sunset is presented as an excellent source of vitamin C, providing 25% of the recommended daily consumption amount in each 35-calorie serving. Ingredients are a blend of mangoes, grapes, pineapples, bananas, and guar/acacia.
- Blue Aloha, a solid source of vitamin A (15% recommended daily value) and vitamin C (20% RDV) in each 35-calorie serving. Pineapples, grapes, bananas, blueberries, carrots and guar/acacia are the flavorful ingredients.
The company, founded by Arnie Zweben, promotes Froozer products as representative of “the pure goodness of freshly harvested fruits and veggies picked at the peak of their ripeness, flash-frozen whole and blended for optimal taste, nutrition and digestion – natural fruits and veggies in all their glory, nothing added or subtracted, not even a drop of water.”
Zweben, who serves as products development director and as well as a member of the board, commented: “I’ve had so many people taste Froozer for the first time, and ask me if it’s really just fruits and vegetables. ‘Yes, it’s just fruits and vegetables,’ I tell them. It’s the most satisfying thing for me to be able to say.”
Because of the method employed in harvesting and blending, the natural flavors of fruits in Froozer products eliminate the need for sweeteners altogether. Not only do they contain no added sugar or water, but also there are no juices, concentrates or purees in the mix.
350-plus Exhibitors to See
Produced by Diversified Communications and Lubicom Marketing Consulting, Kosherfest 2015 will feature more than 350 producers, distributors and suppliers exhibiting certified kosher foods and services from around the world. Among highlights of the two-day gathering will be the 8th Annual Culinary Competition, produced in partnership with the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts.
Show hours are 10 AM to 5 PM on November 10, and, 10 AM to 4 PM on November 11. For registration and other information, visit: www.kosherfest.com.
