Frozen Food: The Rodney Dangerfield of the Food Industry


What do frozen food and the late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield have in common? Neither one gets the respect they deserve.

What do frozen food and the late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield have in common? Neither one gets the respect they deserve.

We repeatedly hear consumers tell us that frozen food is full of preservatives. They routinely pronounce refrigerated foods as superior to frozen. They’d sooner buy canned soup and vegetables. And certainly, no one gives frozen food credit for being convenient. Why is this?

Most shelf-stable foods in this country require 6 to 12 months’ shelf life. Refrigerated foods require shelf lives of 90+ days. These foods require extensive, damaging processes or the addition of preservatives to achieve their shelf life targets. Frozen food, on the other hand, can be made with a minimum of processing, preservatives, and without having to control acid or water activity/moisture levels, which can often affect flavor and texture. Have you ever cooked up a homemade batch of soup or pasta sauce and frozen the leftovers? That’s exactly what frozen food manufacturers do! So why don’t they get credit for their “natural goodness,” (to use a couple marketing terms)?

The bigger question is why the frozen food industry trade group(s) have not been more aggressive about changing consumer perception in general. An effective PR campaign could do wonders to the numbers in the frozen food aisle.

Witness the poor potato. The tuber was tagged as unhealthy during the fat scare of the nineties, since the vast majority of potatoes eaten in this country are deep-fried and sold as potato chips or french fries. Then, when it was down, the potato was hit by the acrylamide scare. And finally, while on it’s side in the dirt, the lowly spud was kicked in the stomach by the low carb craze. The United States Potato Board (USPB), a group that represents potato growers and handlers, has come back swinging. They’ve implemented a wonderful campaign touting “The Skinny on America’s Favorite Vegetable.” You’ve seen the ads: they’re the ones with the potato with a tape measure around its waist.

And who can forget the Milk Processor Board’s wonderful, evocative milk moustache and “Got Milk?” campaigns to increase milk sales. They took a declining beverage and made it cool. Even if they didn’t exactly reverse the trend, they definitely stanched the bleeding.

So where is the American Frozen Food Institute’s clever PR campaign?

Frozen is the way to deliver unadulterated foods. Why don’t consumers recognize this?

The ingredients in Mrs. Fields FROZEN Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Annatto Color
Artificial Flavor
Baking Soda
Brown Sugar
Butter
Calcium Disodium EDTA
Chocolate Chips
Coconut Oil
Corn Syrup
Eggs
Flour
Fructose
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Margarine
Modified Corn Starch
Mono- and Diglycerides
Natural Flavor
Polydextrose
Salt
Salt
Sugar
Vanilla
WaterBaking Soda

The ingredients in Pillsbury Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Caramel Color
Chocolate Chips
Eggs
Flour
Macadamia Nut Flour
Molasses
Natural and Artificial Flavor
Partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil
Peanut Flour
Pecan Flour
Salt
Sodium Aluminum Phosphate
Sugar
Walnut Flour
Water


The ingredients in Mrs. Fields Shelf-stable Choc Chip Cookies (ready-to-eat)
Baking Soda
Brown Sugar
Butter
Chocolate chips
Eggs
Flour
Salt
Sugar
Vanilla

Posted: Mon - March 21, 2005 at 09:53 PM        

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