A sample of what show-goers will see.

Quick Frozen Foods International invited exhibitors of frozen foods and equipment at ANUGA to preview their new products in this edition of the magazine. As a service to our readers, a select showcase of their innovative offerings follows.

Potatoes Galore

Van den Broeke-Lutosa, the biggest Belgian producer of frozen potato products, will be well represented in Hall 10.1, Stand B30. Among its highlighted brands are Oven Chips in sunflower oil, French Fries Plus, Dauphine Potatoes and the Haute Cuisine range.

Oven Chips are available in 10/10 sizes, while those packed by other companies are generally 8/8s. The 10/10s are made to maximize crispiness and full flavor after baking. And health benefits of sunflower oil include its 60-65% polyunsaturated fatty acid content and the absence of cholesterol.

The French Fry Plus advantage lies in dual-temperature storage flexibility. They may be kept either at -18 |degrees~ C or at +4 |degrees~ C. At the former temperature the fries can be held until their expiration date, while at +4 |degrees~ C the holding time is seven days. The latter is preferred by caterers who are selling large volumes of fries in short spaces of time.

Ingredients for the Dauphine specialty item are mashed potatoes, eggs, wheat flour and 100% hydrogenated vegetable oil. The product may be prepared in a conventional oven, deep fat fryer or microwave oven.

New to the Haute Cuisine range is a carrot variety of frozen mashed potatoes. Along with natural-spinach-and celery-flavored offerings, the frozen potato/vegetable granulated product is prepared by adding milk and spices prior to oven-, microwave- or pan-cooking. Duchesse Potatoes (in natural, broccoli, carrot and celery flavors) round out the line.

Scampi from Sco-Fro

Glasgow, Scotland-based Sco-Fro Foods Ltd. is offering whole scampi in new 1-kilo packs featuring a five-color illustration printed on a rich blue background. Traditionally, most such trays contain clear plastic film-wrapped whole scampi sporting a basic label showing product details and a bar code.

Boasting production of over 1,000 metric tons per annum, Sco-Fro says it is "probably Scotland's largest exporter" of whole scampi (Nephrops novegicus). James Campbell, seafood sales and marketing director, noted that the new pack will be available at the same cost of the plain film-wrapped tray.

Duif Cocktail Snacks

While known mainly for its luxury line of hand-made Pancake Rolls, Duif Convenience Foods B.V., Katwijk, Holland, is introducing a new range of Cocktail Snacks at ANUGA. Lumpia Party and Tortellos are billed as crispy pastry parcels filled with vegetables and chicken or exclusively vegetarian. Other fillings offered are salmon and apple and raisins.

Clouston Foods

Shrimp and tilapia are getting a boost from Clouston Foods, Reading, England. The European division of Fishery Products International of Canada, it is representing a US company, King & Prince Seafood Corp., in marketing such added-value products as shrimp in Italian-style garlic sauce, beer batter shrimp, and lightly-dusted shrimp. It is also setting up a joint venture to begin processing shrimp in Europe next year, and importing black tiger shrimp from Thailand.

Under another joint venture, between FPI and the CP Group of Thailand's Seafood Enterprises, a vertically integrated tilapia operation has been established. Tilapia will be available through Clouston in IQF skinless and boneless form (size 70g), and development of value-added items is under way. The operation has produced a "superlative" genetic variation of tilapia, and advanced harvesting and processing technology are used.

Clouston is also looking to boost scallop sales at ANUGA. The firm deals with such blue-chip clients in both retail and foodservice as Iceland and Whitbred in the UK, Tengelman and Bo-Frost in Germany, LeClerc and Intermarche in France and Migros and Movenpick in Switzerland. Since a reorganization in 1991, Clouston has operated from both Reading and Cuxhaven, Germany, and achieved an annual turnover of US $43 million.

Boboli, Inc.

Trekking to Cologne from San Rafael, California, USA, Boboli, Inc., comes to ANUGA to spread the word about its exclusive frozen pizza crust.

Pre-baked with cheeses and olive oil, the crust is already the brand leader in the US and widely distributed by retail chains in the UK, Belgium, Spain and Denmark. (Boboli has even broken into Australia and New Zealand through a licensing agreement with an Australian plant.)

Germany and France are the next targets, and this year Boboli has placed its stand in Hall 10.1, as opposed to the US Pavilion, in order to stress its European commitment. The company is also introducing a complete pizza in two varieties using premium toppings with its own crust; plus its exclusive pizza sauce in sachets.

A. Heinen

On the equipment side, A Heinen GmbH of Varel, Germany, will be highlighting innovations in its line of spiral and fluid bed freezers, as well as a range of multi-stage buffer freezers and flexible food drying systems. The hardware can be seen in Hall 14.1, corridor D, Stand 10.

The newly-designed fluid bed freezer -- made especially to process delicate fruits, berries and vegetables -- is compact and offers easy accessibility for cleaning and maintenance. Nearly all parts are made of stainless steel, while the belts are plastic. Variable-speed fans are featured, and a snow belt is provided to extend evaporator service time.

Meanwhile, the type MES multi-stage buffer freezer is capable of treating variously packed products such as meat, poultry and ice cream with different specified retention times. Cold air is horizontally fed to pass foodstuffs on all sides in an evenly controlled stream. The system assures an effective heat transfer and uniform cooling or freezing with either co-current or counter-current operations, depending on the application.

Scanvaegt

Scanvaegt International A/S of Aarhus, Denmark, will unveil a brand new image system for automatic product identification in Hall 14.1, Stand A64/B69. Integrated with the ScanGrader 7100 sizing and batching machine, it is designed to provide optimum food grading and batching solutions.

The company, which recently opened a subsidiary in Germany, will also display weighing equipment ranging from scales, indicators, computers and production management systems.

New Compact Spiral Freezer From Koppens

Koppens Machinefabriek B.V. is debuting its Compact Spiral Freezer (Type SVRC) at the ANUGA exhibition in Germany this month. The plug-in unit is a stand-alone model that is delivered ready for connection to local service utilities. If necessary, it can be easily moved to another location.

The SRVC is a continuous deep-freezing system featuring a flexible conveyor belt spirally-wound around a drum. This provides a considerable belt length on a relatively small floor surface. The horizontal air stream which encircles IQF products keeps freezing times to a minimum, making for maximum capacity and minimum weight loss.

The tower, constructed entirely of stainless steel, is placed in an insulated cabinet separated from the compressor plant by a wall. The compact freezer is readily accessible, which allows for efficient cleaning. Adjustable air speed and PLC-control are optional extras.

For more information, contact Koppens at P.O. Box 1, Beekakker 11, 5760 AA Bakel, the Netherlands; telephone: [phone]; fax [phone].

Starfrost Starlite Helix Featured at ANUGA

Starfrost Systems Ltd. has expanded its Starlite line of freezers to include a compact Starlite Helix spiral freezer.

Introduced at the ANUGA show in Cologne this month, the unit is available in belt widths of 300 to 600mm to handle up to 1,750 kg an hour of hamburgers and similar products. It also offers proven vertical air flow with simplicity of design,--a combination not previously available in the freezing industry, the company says. Besides featuring all-stainless steel construction, it has a patented new Clean-in-Place system to assure that the belt system is cleaned thoroughly and automatically.

For more information, contact the manufacturer at Starfrost House, Newcombe Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 1XA, England, phone [phone], fax [phone], or any Starfrost regional office (Hamburg, Germany; Sapucaia do Sul, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Athens, Greece; Haifa, Israel).

Cucina Italiana Recipes For German Restaurateurs

Scholler is now offering its restaurant customers in Germany frozen Italian specialties under the Cucina Italiana (Italian Kitchen) banner. Five different pasta varieties are being distributed, along with an upscale lasagne. They are:

Tortelloni Ricotta Parmesan with spicy ricotta and parmesan cheese filling; Tortelloni Verde with beef filling and tomato puree and vegetables; Raviolia Ricotta Spinach; Ravioli with Meat Filling; Tagliatelle (Italian egg noodles).

Scholler is also offering three sauces from the Movenpick Fine Food Creations line: Sauce Bologna, Sauce Al Pasto, and Sauce Tomates Concassee.

apetito Sees Modest Sales Rise this Year

The general downturn in the German economy last year did not spare frozen food producers. Sales registered by apetito AG were up by just 5% (compared with 24% the year before) on overall volume of DM 231 million. Nonetheless, its management anticipates ringing up a "modest sales increase" during the 1992-93 business year described as "somewhat above the average for this industry."

With a 45% share, apetito claims market leadership among frozen food catering systems in the social catering field. It specializes mainly in supplying industrial caterers, meals-on-wheels operators, old folks homes, hospitals, day care centers and schools.

In looking over recent trends, it was noted that a splitting of the market structure resulted from German political unification. In the eastern states, meals-on-wheels is declining and the old folks catering business is stagnating. In contrast, sales to schools and day care centers have more than doubled. In the former West Germany, the picture is just the reverse.

Because of cuts in the state meal subsidies, employer-provided on-site food services for workers have been under heavy cost pressures. As a result, traditional industrial catering has grown in importance. apetito Catering GmbH, a branch of the main company, profited from this development with a sales increase of 13.5%.

In the current reporting year, Trend, apetito's component selection system, has emerged as an important growth element in industrial catering. This unit uses the menu components from the "quasi-primary-packaging-free" Multi Plus multiple portion packaging system. The usage of packaging materials for individual frozen meal components has dropped to about twenty-five percent of the usual primary packaging.

Because of diminishing state subsidies to welfare organizations, meals-on-wheels caterers have been forced to improve efficiencies. With improved profitability the goal, apetito is working on the establishment of a training school. Hence, a course for "Specialist Advisers for Meals on Wheels" will be given before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, on the foreign front, sales grew by about 50% to DM 8 million last year. Most activity is in Holland and the UK.

Frosta Turnover DM250 Million; Ready Meal Sales Grow 50%

Ready meals were the cutting edge last year for Frosta, one of the brands distributed by Nordstern Lebensmittel AG, Bremerhaven, Germany.

Sales of ready meals under the Frosta brand were up 50% last year, compared to 19% for the category as a whole. Overall, Frosta turnover reached 250 million marks, and the brand maintained its lead in frozen fruits while coming in second in frozen vegetables, fish and meals.

Frosta's Bon Appetit ready meals line includes 20 different items, with an emphasis on international dishes, in both 300 and 750-gram bags. The line was repackaged this year to highlight taste and portion control, and a major TV advertising campaign was launched to support the brand. To help spread distribution of the Frosta brand throughout Europe, multilingual packaging is being used for more and more products; major markets include France, the Benelux countries, Austria, Scandinavia and Spain.

Meanwhile, Nordstern invested DM 43 million last year (the same as in 1991) in Elbtal Tiefkuhlmenu, its subsidiary in the former East Germany. The overall turnover for both Elbtal and Frosta was DM 502 million, up five percent from 1991.