Mars Canada has added a healthy dose of grains to Uncle Ben’s.
The company recently launched Uncle Ben’s Rice & Grains, which combines rice with ancient grains and pairs it with a variety of flavours.
The product line consists of seven flavours: Brown Rice & Quinoa – Roasted Red Pepper; Basmati Medley – Savory Herb; 5 Grain Blend – Savory Quinoa Pilaf; Brown Rice Medley – Roasted Garlic and Herb; Spicy Wholegrain & Quinoa – With Chili; Wholegrain & Wild – Garden Herb Wholegrain & Quinoa – Garlic Flavour.
Each product comes in both a two-minute, ready-to-heat format for quick meals, and a 20-minute format in a serving size for the whole family.
“Consumers are increasingly looking for healthier meal solutions for themselves and their families,” says Kyle Lyons, segment director for Uncle Ben’s. “We do know that consumers see rice as inherently healthy and are continually looking for unique grains like quinoa, basmati and grains. And they tend to be the grains that are fuelling the growth in our business today.”
Lyons notes the rice category is seeing strong growth of 5% to 8%, which bucks the trend of fairly stagnant growth in centre-of-store categories.
To promote the new products, Uncle Ben’s is hosting three Food Truck Challenges, in Montreal (May 26), Vancouver (June 7) and Toronto (June 9). In each city, chefs from three popular food trucks have been challenged to create the most delicious recipe using an Uncle Ben’s Rice & Grains product.
Visitors at each event will get to try each dish and vote for their favourite, helping choose the winning recipe that will travel across the country this summer on a branded Uncle Ben’s Rice & Grains food truck. Visitors will also go home with copies of the recipes so they can try them at home.
The Uncle Ben’s food truck will be visiting Canadian events throughout the summer, including the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, Northwest Roundup in Swan River, Man., and The Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
“One of the key challenges that we have in launching Rice & Grains is we have a barrier to overcome and that’s the perception that rice is inherently healthy, but will it taste good?” says Lyons.
“Food trucks are one of the hottest trends right now, and some of the best chefs are bringing fresh new thinking and culinary delights to consumers through food trucks.” In leveraging food trucks, Uncle Ben’s will let consumers taste “delicious food that can be healthy,” adds Lyons.
Uncle Ben’s is also promoting Rice & Grains with in-store marketing and sampling, a Food Network homepage takeover, digital coupons, and freestanding inserts that will go out to 10 million households.
This article originally appeared at CanadianGrocer.com.
