instore - July 2017 - COMM - 2

Insight Insider

THE FRESHTAKE LINE WAS DEVELOPED TO INCLUDE DIVERSE OPTIONS FOR ALL AGE GROUPS FROM KIDS TO ADULTS.
PHOTO: FRESHTAKE

restaurant was nearby. And it's easy
to eat 1,200 or 1,400 calories in a meal
and it's expensive."
While Janacek says FreshTake isn't trying to be "uber healthy," the line is full
of options that consumers won't feel
bad about eating. "We want to be in the
middle of the road for everyday Americans to be able to grab these and eat
them whenever they want and feel good
about it," he says.
Another key driver was to help families
find the time to once again sit down at
the table for a meal, specifically one
that didn't come from a fast-food drivethru. FreshTake provides the tools and
resources to make coming back to the
dinner table easier.
"At the end of the day, that was the driver," Janacek says. "This is what we are
trying to accomplish. That said, we knew
the food had to be great. If it wasn't,
people wouldn't buy it a second time. We
came up with the concept and then laid
out the idea. If the food isn't good, the
'why' is going to go out the door."

The 'how'
FreshOne has long prided itself on going the extra mile in product develop-

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2 * JULY 2017

ment. The company's vice-president,
Matt Yost, told Commissary Insider
in 2015 that "unless we are completely
confident (after testing) that a new item
or limited-time-only will stick, we work
with our retailer partners on limiting
the distribution until we can monitor
each new item's success. If we have an
item that appears to have slower movement than expected, we live by the 'fail
fast mantra, and just move on."

"They are kind of a unique factor in all
of this," Janacek says. "We came up with
some pretty cool, authentic sauces. We
wanted to create flavors that are harder
to replicate at home."

Naturally, the R&D stage of the
FreshTake line was important. In fact,
Janacek says it's a process that never
ends and that has been perfected by the
company's traditional fresh side with
the development with sandwiches and
salads on-trend.

"They said 'Look, if you just do another spaghetti and meatball, that doesn't
differentiate. We've got that under the
glass and we've got 14 varieties in the
freezer section,'" Janacek says. "We had
to do something that is going to make it
where families can have meals they can
trust but that also might be too complicated to prepare at home."

"We want to be relevant and we want
it to last through the cold chain and
have a decent shelf life," he says.
"You have to keep looking at coming
up with better ways."
The company took what it had learned
with its traditional lines and applied
it to FreshTake. The food had to taste
good, hold up in distribution and have a
decent shelf life. A number of proteins
were tested, along with a high number of
starches. When it came time to test sauces, FreshOne decided to create its own.

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commissary INSIDER

This led to a diverse line of foods, from
Asian to Indian and more, a decision
that was also spurred by discussions
with retailers, who made it clear they
wanted new and exciting options.

The beneﬁt
FreshTake meals are produced in one
of FreshOne's SQF-certified facilities
and then sent to distribution centers.
From there they are shipped to retailers
where they slack overnight and prepare
for their shelf life, which can be up to
five days.
"We've learned along the way about
things to watch when the product is

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