While the consumption of ready meals and fifth-range dishes is increasing in all kinds of catering establishments, manufacturers are responding to the demands of the sector by launching higher-quality products that can lead to significant savings in terms of time and costs for the restaurant. Many of them will be on display at Alimentaria & Hostelco 2024.
By Marta Renovales, a journalist with Profesionalhoreca.com
After rising by 12.6% in 2022, sales of ready meals in the Spanish market increased by around 7% in 2023 and exceeded 3,800 million euros, according to the latest DBK Sector Observatory report drawn up by Informa. Despite inflation, the sector is continuing to expand due to the rise of ready-to-eat meals and the increasing penetration of these kinds of products in the hospitality industry. More specifically, the frozen ready meals segment is being driven forward by the vitality of sales to the horeca channel, with an 8%-9% increase and a total of 1,430 million euros at the end of 2023.
These are just some of the data that confirm the state of affairs; the hospitality industry has used, uses and will use more and more ready, fifth-range and pre-cooked meals. Whether it’s acknowledged or not, hospitality establishments are resorting to external preparation whenever necessary, for various reasons, including cost savings, work and labour, a lack of kitchen space and skilled staff, food safety, business organisation and so on, not to mention exorbitant rental prices and restrictions on smoke outlets. Very few establishments can make 100% of their recipes or ingredients in-house today.
Controversy has arisen with the future fait maison or homemade law in France, which, starting in 2025, will oblige restaurants in the country to indicate whether the dish has been prepared on site or not. Numerous questions immediately come to mind: How are they going to check whether something is entirely or partially “homemade”? What if one of the ingredients, let’s say a sauce, comes from outside? Is cooking something sous vide “homemade”? Does the fact that a stew has been made in a central kitchen and regenerated on the premises mean lower quality? Would such a law be possible in Spain? Nor should we neglect the fact that “all homemade” will mean more hours, more staff, more costs and ultimately, a higher price for the dish…
Controversy has arisen with the future fait maison or homemade law in France, which, starting in 2025, will oblige restaurants in the country to indicate whether the dish has been prepared on site or not. Numerous questions immediately come to mind: How are they going to check whether something is entirely or partially “homemade”? What if one of the ingredients, let’s say a sauce, comes from outside? Is cooking something sous vide “homemade”? Does the fact that a stew has been made in a central kitchen and regenerated on the premises mean lower quality? Would such a law be possible in Spain? Nor should we neglect the fact that “all homemade” will mean more hours, more staff, more costs and ultimately, a higher price for the dish…
Thus, at Alimentaria & Hostelco 2024 there’ll be a display of a broad selection of fifth-range dishes, ready meals, ingredients and culinary aids, among numerous other products, specific to the needs of the horeca channel.
For example, the foodservice division of Gallina Blanca will bring to the fair its professional culinary bases, which allow chefs to save resources without foregoing creativity. A line of concentrated broths and stir-fries developed by chefs for chefs which, by means of assembly cooking, facilitates the mise en place and subsequent service, in addition to ensuring dish standardisation, cost control, profitability and an optimal organoleptic result.
Its applications? Lots, especially for rices (paellas, risottos) and dishes requiring a spoon (soups, creams, stews, etc.). They’re presented in 0.5L, 1L and 3L doypack formats designed for both commercial and collective catering.
As for Quickchef, it offers the hospitality industry a wide array of fifth-range products with home cooking recipes prepared using the latest technologies. These include the line of roast meats prepared in their packaging, thus benefiting from their juices and achieving a smoothness and texture difficult to find in current-day kitchens. Take a look at the roast knuckle, roast chicken, pork cheeks, marinated bacon and pork ribs… first-rate solutions for numerous restaurants and catering companies, which can increase their range of meals while reducing time, waste and space, controlling costs and guaranteeing constant quality.
One of the fifth-range products made by Emcesa that are successful in the hospitality industry is veal tail stewed in red wine and braised with sauce. Pasteurised in an autoclave, it’s a gluten-free recipe that’s packaged in a protective atmosphere and delivered to the restaurant on a 2,200g horeca tray, and it has a 90-day shelf life.
Meanwhile, Covap offers restaurants a very modern product: its gourmet 100% beef burger, made from animals raised in the wild by the cooperative’s farmers in a unique ecosystem, the Dehesa del Valle de los Pedroches.
Without any additives, allergens or preservatives, this burger made from selected cuts is only seasoned with salt and black pepper, and its extreme juiciness and intense flavour are exceptional. Ready to prepare and eat, it’s supplied to the frozen horeca channel in two formats: a tray with 15 units of 180g burgers or 10 units of 250g burgers.
Attentive to the needs of the sector, Audens Food has created its successful line of Gastrobar haute cuisine croquettes for the hospitality industry. Crispy and golden thanks to their panko bread coating, they contain a highly delicate béchamel sauce made with fresh milk and abundant chunks. There are six varieties, namely shoulder and Iberian ham, chicken, aged Zamorano cheese, North Atlantic cod, prawns and shrimps and boletus and mushrooms. Weighing 40g each, they’re presented on 480g trays, with four trays per box.
And more than one diner will be left speechless by Maheso’s XXL roast beef cannelloni, a colourful large-format pasta dish made with a mixture of selected roast meats and without any béchamel. With a format 15cm long and weighing 102g per piece, it’s the ideal solution for creating original dishes, and it can be customised with different sauces (béchamel, tomato, truffle, boletus, etc.). It’s ready to serve after just a few minutes in the microwave, pan or oven without any prior defrosting.
Until now, the award-winning Spanish omelette from La Cocina de Senén was served uncooked, with a frying pan or oven required to finish it. The brand is now going to present an innovation at Alimentaria: its “heat it up and it’s ready” Spanish omelette, a highly versatile product suitable for an air fryer, microwave, oven or frying pan. It’s supplied in 200g and 600g formats (for horeca and retail) and in a 1kg version exclusively for horeca, in the “with caramelised onion” and “without onion” varieties.
It will also present new flavours for its gourmet croquettes (seafood) and new ways of cooking them; in addition to the classic fried varieties, its oven croquettes are now also suitable for air fryers. Made with natural km0 raw materials, they’re gluten-free and crispy and creamy. The formats for the horeca channel are 30g and 17g (cocktail format).
Similarly, the excellent local product from Alicante serves Paellalia for the preparation of all its products, including the Fish Stock, ideal for making delicious paellas, suquets, fideuà, soups, rices, risottos and other recipes. This is a professional, gluten-free, concentrated broth made with fresh rock fish and crustaceans from Santa Pola Bay. It contains tomato sauce, red peppers and 100% Mediterranean garlic of the highest quality for cooking homemade and traditional recipes. It’s supplied in a 410g can.
And directly from Ireland come Premium Butcher Burgers, presented by Dawn Meats. This is a high quality frozen burger, weighing 170 grams, made by master butchers from Irish grass-fed beef. The ingredients? Only beef (98.9%), salt and pepper, and of course, no preservatives, to the delight of the most carnivorous.
Appetising, right? This is nothing more than a small appetiser among the wide range of products for the horeca channel that will be on view at Alimentaria & Hostelco 2024 at an event that’s expected to break all records. We’ll meet in Barcelona from 18 to 21 March.