The Culinary Edge, a San Francisco, California-based food and beverage innovation consultancy, is working with frozen potato and snack food products specialist McCain Foods USA on the creation of a new vegetable appetizer line. In response to changing consumer preferences, particularly among health-conscious flexitarians, the two companies came together and introduced V’DGZ, a range of vegetable appetizers.
V’DGZ highlights “meat replacers” and “plant celebrators” including Cauli Wngz, which are large, pickled cauliflower florets with a clear, crispy coating; Corn RBZ, crispy sweet corn on the cob curls in a light hickory-smoked batter; and Brusslz, lightly seasoned Brussels sprout halves with a crispy crust. These product concepts underwent extensive evaluation to ensure they would meet the demands of consumers, operators and manufacturing standards.
“Over the last several years, plant and vegetable-based appetizers have seen tremendous growth due to consumers’ evolving perceptions of health, environment and animal welfare benefits. Our teams were able to leverage this demand for ‘meat replacers’ and create a variety of delicious vegetable-forward alternatives that diners and foodservice operators can enjoy,” said Culinary Edge CEO Graham Humphreys.
He added: ”We’re proud to say that the V’DGZ line won the National Restaurant Show’s 2023 FABI award, highlighting how forward-thinking and creative these products are. After a lot of research, collaboration and hard work, we can confidently say that you do not have to sacrifice flavor or fun when eating plant-based products.”
