(Watsonville, CA) Inn Foods, Inc., a California-based international re-packer of frozen foods, announced today it would utilize its expanded production capabilities to fill the growing demand in the food service industry for packaged, complete frozen meals.
According to Mike Randle, president of Inn Foods, Inc., "The growth in consumer demand for Home Meal Replacements (HMR) that has driven production for the retail food market has impacted the food service industry as well. The advent of the all-in-one-bag meal brought new cost savings in HMR production for in-store sales. We believe this is an opportunity for Inn Foods to exploit our innovations in all-in-one-bag packaging to meet the food service industry's growing need for HMR products."
A $3.5 million expansion at the firm's principal repacking plant in the central California city of Castroville doubled production capability and upgraded facilities to meet USDA Meat and Poultry Requirements. Inn Foods is able to combine individually quick-frozen (IQF) cooked meat and poultry products to IQF vegetable blends and sauce chips or pellets or sauce packets in a single frozen food package.
While the principal market for Home Meal Replacements traditionally has been supermarkets, changing consumer preferences have made the HMR concept increasingly popular at restaurants and fast food locations. Randle added, "We can provide a healthier frozen meal with protein, vegetable and starch in a single package. Inn Foods' state of the art blending and packaging equipment allows us to exercise more precise portion control that minimizes waste and meets consumer demands for smaller meal size. We do this at a more efficient cost for the server."
Inn Foods, Inc. was founded in 1976 and has production operations in North and Central America and is a major importer of frozen food products from Europe, Central and South America, and Asia. Inn Foods is a subsidiary of the VPS Companies of Watsonville, CA, a 55-year-old group of vertically integrated enterprises operating in the frozen food business.