Don’t look now but one of the food industry’s most interesting markets is quite literally a market in motion—those products developed for off-premise foodservice consumption. Listen in as Prepared Foods explores new product development, operator needs and consumer behaviors with Faye Schoenherr, North American Senior Brand Manager for SureCrisp, McCain Foods’ portfolio of French fries designed for delivery.

Schoenherr has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard business School. During the past 20 years, she’s leveraged consumer research insights, industry trends and cross-functional collaboration to support product development across a range of CPG categories. Interestingly, her career path has included roles at Mattel, Phillip’s Electronics and Campbell Soup—everything from Barbie to Goldfish crackers.

Canada’s McCain Foods Ltd., Florenceville, N.B., is one of the world’s largest suppliers of frozen potato products. In North America, it also produces and markets frozen retail and foodservice French fries, potato specialties and appetizers through its two units: McCain Foods USA and McCain Foodservice.

Image courtesy of Faye Schoenherr

Schoenherr joined McCain Foods earlier this year and serves McCain Foodservice Solutions. In her role, she meets with McCain Foods’ sales representatives but also the company’s two primary customer groups: foodservice operators and consumers. Likewise, she regularly engages the company’s insights team, R&D scientists and two corporate chefs.

Not surprisingly, consumers insights research showed a spike in off-premise consumer purchases during COVID. Schoenherr says that that at-home behavior—either involving drive-through, pick-up and delivery (think DoorDash, Uber Eats)—not only remains “sticky” but has grown during the past two years. Although inflation might cut into future third-party delivery sales, she notes an estimated 70% of consumers still buy off-premise once a month.

Interestingly, she adds that operators are experiencing off-premise product and sales growth across all dayparts, including breakfast.

McCain’s direct research uncovered two key operator concerns around off-premise: quality control and reputation control. The moment food goes out the door, an operator loses control over the consumer taste experience. Schoenherr adds that many (if not most) consumers use off-premise purchases to try a restaurant for the first time so those initial taste impressions are crucial.

She notes McCain first created SureCrisp in 2017 for quick-serve drive-through applications. To date, the line now spans as many as 10 distinct products by cut and coating. She says operator and consumer insights led to McCain to realize that moisture loss—resulting from outside air exposure as well as inside-out heat loss—resulted in poor French fry experience (cold, soggy, etc.). In turn, she says McCain has combined potato science with batter technologies to manage heat and preserve a crisp bite to that SureCrisp literally delivers on its name for up to a full 30 minutes.