What changes are occurring right now in the convenience market?

The level of convenience in the restaurant trade is rising, which is partly due to the fact that kitchens tend to employ trained personnel. It’s also becoming more important for products to be more flexible and robust during preparation. In the case of side dishes, for example, this means that French fries have to ‘tolerate’ longer frying times without any quality impairment.

What challenges are associated with the development of new products?

Rather than being associated with traditional preparation methods, the challenges relate more to improving usability. In the case of French fries, for example, frying time flexibility is important. Also, the fries have to stay hot and crisp for as long as possible when they come out of the fryer.

What convenience trends do you think we‘ll be seeing in the future?

Although convenience products will still be offered separately to restaurants so that they can continue to compile their menus themselves, pack sizes will get smaller. At many restaurants it is far more practical to have portion-sized packs rather than buying ingredients in bulk packs. The vegetarian and vegan trend will gain momentum, and there will be more organic foods – in school canteens, for instance.