APPLICATION
READY-MADE MEALS
Sophie, Buyer
for an international food group
THE situation
BEFORE ActiMeat
« There is tension in the market – retailers want lower prices, but they don’t want lower-quality products and to damage their images. I have already gone through my portfolio of suppliers again and none of them can meet my requirements as regards improvement. What can you bring to the table as regards our flagship frozen product, shepherd’s pie?»
Currently, this product is made using European beef and aromatic ingredients cooked in a pot. Once it has cooled down, the cooked meat is shredded, and then mixed with a few vegetables and condiments when warm. The preparation is put into containers in the right quantity as the first layer, on the production line, before the potato mash layer, and then the product as a whole is frozen using a mechanical refrigeration system.
ActiMeat was consulted about a range of ready meals as regards this leading recipe in the catalogue of a major manufacturer, with a view to supplying it with 1,500 tonnes.
Optimisation
of production costs
ActiMeat provided a «confidential» approach, whereby it would reduce costs overall by going over all the production stages with the client.
By reducing production operations, by remedying intermediary raw material waste, by increasing the production rate, by reducing energy costs, etc. The result was a 9% drop in the overall cost price without lowering the quality of the meat.
Innovation
flavours innovation
The innovation resides in simultaneous cooking of the meat, the vegetables and of the natural favourings, without the raw materials losing their structures.
Cooking juices from the raw materials mix with each other, resulting in unparalleled spreading
of cooking flavours and an appetising product appearance. A taste test procedure which constitutes approval if passed has been put in place as regards each batch, in order that the product be checked in conjunction.
Product yield
and packaging
The ready-to-use ingredient is IQF frozen, which means that ingredient dosing takes place
when it is cold, without any waste taking place on the production line, and this also enables the product freezing speed to be increased.
The procedure incorporates packing of the raw material into bags with easy-to-open mechanisms, the sizes of which are in line with the sizes of the production batches the manufacturer wants to produce. The availability in inventory of raw materials in line with scheduled deliveries also enables the service level for this product to be improved.
THE ANSWER
ActiMeat
Our know-how
Our expertise in uncooked meat products
Assembly of controlled raw material (texture, flavor…) for your satisfaction and the final consumer’s one.
Our expertise in nature and ready-made meat products
Innovating cooking process which guarantees not comparable flavors and texture for your preparations.
Our expertise in cooked meat and vegetables innovation products
Product made to measure, ready to be cooked is adapted to numerous meals (mince, sauces, lasagnas…).
Our expertise in nature or ready-made home-made meatballs products
An elaboration which is different by its visual evoking a home-made product and its composition control.