Speedy solutions: the latest grab-and-go products for your menu

Street eats

Street food embodies grab and go, and particularly appeals to younger demographics, with 83% of the market powered by people under 40, according to Hartman Group research. Loaded fries are a leader, with Lamb Weston’s UK trade marketeer, Ash Liles, describing them as having “significant mark-up potential when you compare the cost per portion with the potential sales value”. The brand’s new Frenzy Fries are designed to uphold crunch for up to 20 minutes to ensure that they maintain quality while being transported.

To give street food a twist while being convenient to serve, Asian dressings and seasonings are perfect for food on the go. “The complex layers found in many Asian sauces can be time-consuming and challenging to achieve, so choosing ready-made, rich and concentrated products will elevate dishes to support menus across all sectors,” says Lee Kum Kee Europe’s managing director Maria Chong. She suggests dishes such as char siu chicken katsu sando or black pepper duck wrap, using the brand’s Chinese style honey BBQ marinade or black pepper sauce, respectively.

Quick quenching

On the drinks side of things, a speedy grab-and-go water can also be eco-friendly. Belu Water feels it offers the best of both worlds with its new still and sparkling water aluminium cans, which are a minimum of 68% recycled, locally manufactured and can help to reduce single use plastic.

With consumers increasingly turning to healthier products, offering functional drinks could boost custom. Patrick Grant-Sturgis, co-founder of Jamu, a ‘gut-friendly’ sparkling flavoured water brand, says: “With obesity levels in the UK at a record high, it’s the responsibility of the operator to offer healthy drinks in the chiller that are low- or zero-sugar. Choice is key. With Jamu, operators can provide a fun and refreshing drink that allows purchasers to top up on their fibre, while keeping them refreshed.”

Convenient kit

When it comes to ensuring a swift service and a quality product at smaller food-to-go sites, Unox’s Speed.Compact Eco high speed oven measures 60cm in depth and has one-touch ‘click and cook’ technology, delivering a finished product in 1-2 minutes or less. Unox UK managing director Scott Duncan says: “It delivers the ultimate combination of speed, performance and a reduced footprint – without compromising on quality or budget.”

Front of house, equipment wholesaler Lockhart can help operators be mindful of how they present their goods with the Podium display range. Its European oak catering trolleys and system of interchangeable, stackable, modular inserts, including tea chests, bread bins, box risers and trays, are available in a natural wooden finish, brown, grey or black to suit any site.

Chilled grab-and-go options can be attractively displayed with Lockhart’s Arctica glass-door refrigerators, which should deliver a more consistent temperature than open-faced chillers. The models consist of compact single-, double- and triple-door under-counter units, or upright display refrigerators with up to 880 litre capacity.

Given today’s more varied scope of grab-and-go foods, their packaging also needs to be diverse, be able to retain heat and offer visual appeal. Wholesaler Booker’s 255-strong CaterPro range features everything from self-folding boxes for sandwiches, baguettes and wraps to deli pots with lids, street food bowls, breakfast and ice-cream tubs, pizza boxes and cups for hot and cold drinks.

Catering director Darren Bown says: “The new CaterPro disposables range is cost-effective and price-benchmarked with three tiers, helping caterers manage costs without compromising the customer experience.”

And as for facilitating payment and insights into what to stock, Maxwell Harding, founder and chief executive at software provider Dynamify, suggests: “Electronic point of sale systems offer the benefit of non-anonymised basket-level data that helps businesses better understand what their customers want and make more informed decisions. With this visibility, F&B businesses can also assess which grab-and-go products are most popular, as well as on which days of the week.”

Suppliers

Belu Water belu.org

Booker www.booker.co.uk

Bridor www.bridor.co.uk

Dynamify www.dynamify.com

Jamu Wild Water jamuwildwater.co.uk

Lamb Weston www.lambweston.eu/uk

Lee Kum Kee www.lkkprofessional.com

Lockhart Catering Equipment www.lockhart.co.uk

Rich’s www.richs.co.uk

Simply Lunch www.simplylunch.co.uk

Unox www.unox.com/en_gb

Photo: Pablo Rasero/Shutterstock