Hormel Foods takes its role as a leader in the pizza and foodservice industries seriously, and this spring, the company is once again positioned as a trend setter. At the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, the company unveiled the HORMEL Ribbon Pepperoni, the latest food-forward innovation from the pizza-topping experts at Hormel Foods.
Inspired by the pizza stylings of Windsor, Ontario — an oft-underrated pizza epicenter, where shredded pepperoni is a staple — HORMEL Ribbon Pepperoni is a gamechanger for American foodservice operators, allowing for quicker pizza preparation while ensuring a taste of pepperoni in every bite.
“We are always looking for ways to create solutions for our operators, and we believe HORMEL Ribbon Pepperoni does just that,” says Colby Strilaeff, Hormel Foodservice brand manager. “It’s a unique product unlike anything else in the market, and we are very excited to showcase it at the International Pizza Expo. We think it’ll be the talk of the show.”
Solving operator pain points is always a top priority for the Hormel Foodservice team, and in assessing pizza, specifically pepperoni, two main issues were identified:
- Round slices of pepperoni take a long time to portion evenly on a pizza pie.
- Round slices aren’t always the best format of pepperoni for non-pizza applications, like pastas and salads.
For the Hormel Foodservice team, these pain points presented an opportunity for innovation.
“We asked ourselves, what if pepperoni could be handled and applied like shredded mozzarella cheese?” says Blake Flores, innovation team lead for Hormel Foodservice. “We tested pepperoni spirals, we tested different thicknesses of pepperoni, but in the end, ribbons emerged as the solution that best addressed these operator pain points, and we’re already seeing the results. The response to this product from our foodservice customers has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Hormel Foods has a long-standing reputation for creating innovative and delicious products for foodservice operators, including its FONTANINI Cup & Char Sausage, which was a showstopper item at last year’s International Pizza Expo.
