Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/684981
O C G S h o w D a i l y 5 5 S u n d a y, Ju n e 5 , 2 0 1 6 Chef. Go! meals enable customers to quickly cook tasty, healthy meals for their entire family with zero food prepa- ration and minimal clean up. Grocers, in turn, can experience a significant lift in sales of perishable products and an opportunity to further differentiate them- selves in the marketplace. The Ready. Chef. Go! program offers two different steam cooking bags, one for oven and microwave use, and the other for grill and oven use that grocers can use to create pre-packaged meals that feature fresh, raw ingredients that cus- tomers can cook themselves at home in as little as three minutes. "Both products provide a high level of convenience to consumers," said Matthew Banghart, Director of the Ready. Chef. Go! brand. This year, Elkay Plastics is introduc- ing retail packs of both types of Ready. Chef. Go! cooking bags for grocers to offer to consumers. Retail packs allow consumers to purchase the bags by them- selves to create their own meals and recipes at home. "The retail pack will allow grocers to provide consumers with the 'do it your- self' solution as well as convenient, pre- made meals," Banghart said. "Retail packs empower the consumer since they can infuse their creativity in crafting their own meals while enjoying the conven- ience brought by Ready. Chef. Go! bags." This product line also offers grocers the opportunity to differentiate them- Elk ay P lastics (C o nt'd. fro m p. 1 ) selves from competitors through enhanced merchandising, and that's going to produce results in higher sales volume and profit margins for meat, seafood and produce departments. "With our vast experience in imple- menting successful Ready. Chef. Go! programs, we can deliver solutions to customers that will increase their sales and profit margins while reducing their total procurement costs," Banghart said. Elkay Plastics is a leading U.S. sup- plier of flexible packaging for the food- service, healthcare and industrial mar- kets. Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Elkay Plastics has eight strategically-located divisions that stock almost 3,000 items. Elkay Plastics sells primarily through wholesale distributors and offers the broadest line of flexible packaging solu- tions available anywhere. "Our goal is to help our distributor customers deliver the best possible solu- tions to the end user. We are able to achieve this by utilizing one of the indus- try's few direct sales teams that are con- tinually trained and educated on techni- cal and industry issues," Banghart said. "Our innovation stems from the solutions we develop directly through our continu- ous interaction with our customers." Visit Elkay Plastics in booth #5436-38, and see Ready. Chef. Go! in the New Product Showcase. For more information, call 810.772.9488 or visit www.elkayplastics .com or www.readychefgobags.com. 1924, the company's goal has been sim- ple and remains the same as it was almost 100 years ago. It manufactures the high- est quality commercial pie, focused on quality ingredients and quality baking process. It sources all of its quality ingre- dients to match its high end product spec- ifications. All of Table Talk's pie fillings and dough are still made in its bakeries, the same way it has been doing it since 1924. Table Talk prides itself on its famous flaky melt in your mouth crust that is made with 100 percent vegetable shortening. The consistency of its crust is a golden brown with both the top and bottom baking evenly every time. Table Talk Pies offers one of the highest fruit to filling content, as well as one of the highest filling to dough ratios in the industry. Table Talk Pies have broad appeal and come in many varieties and sizes. They are also kosher and trans fat free. Table Talk Pies are available fresh, baked today and on your shelf tomorrow in the Northeast, and they are also available frozen as a thaw and sell and a ready to bake product. The company aims to offer pies to customers in whatever format Table Talk P ies (C o nt'd. fro m p. 1 ) they want. Table Talk is often asked, "Why the box?" Although it offers pies in plastic clamshells and black bottom plastic, it prefers the box. A wholesome Table Talk Pie needs to breathe. The crust profile and flavor properties are only enhanced when allowed to breathe. Plastic has a tendency to hold the moisture in, giving the crust a life- less quality. Table Talk Pies are available in just about any flavor that a customer would need, and they are all made with that famous Table Talk "old fashioned" recipe that is sure to delight. Table Talk also has a size to meet everyone's appetite, whether it is its No. 1 selling 4-inch line of Fresh Table Talk Red & White Box in the Northeast or the 4- inch Old Fashioned Pies that are sold throughout the 50 states. Table Talk also produces 6-inch, 8-inch and family sized 10-inch pies that are available in both ready to bake and thaw and sell formats. Whatever Table Talk Pie you pur- chase, the company is sure that you will be happy with the taste and quality. For more information, visit booth #2356 or go online to www.tabletalkpie.com. of 'The Original Cannoli Chip,' a crispy snack chip. The company plans to make cannoli "an everyday snack experience." Golden has found great success in the bakery department with cannoli chips and dip over last three years, with sales growing over 100 percent per year. This item has created more cannoli awareness and offered opportunities for continued expansion into other market locations. With the launch of the cannoli chip, the entire cannoli category has improved across the country, with Golden leading the industry. The snack chip is sold in 5-ounce and 14-ounce bags, and the chips contain no artificial ingredients, no trans fats, no preservatives and are nut-free. The prod- G o lden C anno li (C o nt'd. fro m p. 1 ) uct will be sold as a retail snack in super- markets, delis and in specialty depart- ments coast to coast. Golden Cannoli intends to launch "limited batch" flavors throughout the year and continue to inno- vate far beyond expectations. Besides its quality cannoli products and packaging, the company has been recognized for impeccable customer service, commitment to quality and on- time deliveries. Golden plans to launch these snack chips coast to coast in Q3 of 2016, and offers support in development, private label and creative solutions for point of sales. For more information, visit booth #4057 or email Owner and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Valerie Bono at valerie@goldencannoli.com. European baking recipes and traditions to New York City. Michael and Rosalie baked bread daily, and their sons deliv- ered the loaves by horse and wagon. After baking in New York for more than a half century, the family brought their traditions to Florida. Since 1966, Cusano's Bakery has carried the same pride in delivering quality bread, daily, to its customers. The sounds of clanking horseshoes on cobblestone streets may be gone, but the Greco family tradition of baking fresh, artisan breads lives on after five generations. With the con- struction of a new 275,000 square foot bakery plant in Florida, completed and C usano 's B ak ery (C o nt'd. fro m p. 1 ) open for business, the family tradition lives on. The Cusano's Bakery state of the art manufacturing facility will produce all natural artisan breads and rolls, boules, ciabatta breads, baguettes, breakfast breads, holiday breads, French breads, Italian breads, whole wheat, whole grain and multigrain breads, assorted dinner rolls, hamburger rolls, hot dog rolls, hoagie and sub rolls, Kaiser rolls, Pullman breads, sliced 3/8 or 5/8 sliced for Texas Toast and two- pound free form artisan breads in multi- ple flavor profiles. Visit Cusano's Bakery at booths #5155 and #5157. CIDER ACT BRINGS REFRESHING CHANGES By Micah Cheek Cider producers have scored a victory for their craft with the passage of the Cider Industry Deserves Equal Representation Act, or CIDER Act. Passage of the act means that cider and perry producers can make beverages with higher alcohol and carbonation contents without being pushed into a much more expensive tax category. Consumers wanted ciders with qual- ities that required coming up against these highly taxed levels, cider makers said. "Cider in the tax code is defined very narrowly," says Dan Rowell, Chief Executive Officer of Vermont Hard Cider. Prior to the passage, ciders would be taxed as wine if they exceeded a seven percent alcohol content, and taxed as champagne if they exceeded 3.92 grams of carbon dioxide per liter. While produc- ers normally paid 17 cents per gallon in taxes, going over the required carbon dioxide content limit bounced their taxes to $3.30 per gallon. "A lot of smaller guys have been living under that risk and hoping they don't get caught," adds Rowell. "Smaller players were either paying that tax or running the risk." Customer comments drove the movement, according to Rowell. "People would try a beer, then try a cider, and say our product tastes flat," he says. "If we go any higher (in carbonation), it's the champagne tax, which makes this prohib- itive." As the cider industry grew, produc- ers were finding that they couldn't afford to make the kinds of ciders that cus- tomers were becoming interested in. They organized and found that they were dealing with an industry-wide issue. "Once we had a bill in Congress, then it was that grass roots… (Producers) calling their representatives," says West. "As a result, the bill was very highly sponsored. There were dozens of sena- tors and reps for the bills; it was very bipartisan." Support for the bill was enhanced by the cider producers' con- tention that the change isn't going to cost the government anything, according to Rowell. "Congress was asking, 'How much is this going to cost us?'" he says. "One of the keys is, it's revenue-neutral or -enhancing." With the passing of the act, cider and perry producers are looking forward to new opportunities. "We'll have more lee- way with our products," says Micheal Beck, President of the United States Association of Cider Makers and Co- owner of Uncle John's Cider Mill. "You definitely have more room to work with. You're definitely at less risk of being taxed at a much higher rate." Beck notes that this leeway is important to a quickly growing industry. "We hope to sustain this growth. We still haven't achieved 100 percent market penetration. Some retail places have yet to try cider." Greater flexibility also means a greater ability to innovate. "I don't think you'll see established companies increasing the alcohol level that much. What you will see, though, is medium- sized craft producers having the option to make ciders we wanted to make, but couldn't afford to make because of taxes," adds West. "Retailers are going to see a greater variety…. When a con- sumer goes and sees a cider on a shelf, they'll say, 'cider shmider.' But when they see 20 on the shelf, they'll say, 'Hey, I want to try that.'"