US Foods, a leading foodservice distributor in the country, has announced the launch of its Fall 2024 Scoop™. Themed “Bar and Grill and Beyond,” Fall Scoop highlights 24 new on-trend products designed by US Foods product development experts who leverage a wealth of culinary expertise, industry experience and data-driven insights to bring new product innovation to US Foods Exclusive Brands.  

The new Fall Scoop products help operators differentiate their menu with items that help address inventory, labor and time management costs. The products are also highly versatile across a variety of restaurant types from bar and grill to other casual dining concepts and beyond. Additionally, ten products in the Fall Scoop launch are part of the company’s “Serve You” product portfolio that features more than 3,300 US Foods Exclusive Brands products that offer plant-forward, gluten-free certified or clean ingredient labels with no ingredients on the US Foods Unpronounceables List®.  

“Our product development team takes great pride in creating innovative, high-quality Exclusive Brands products that appeal to today’s diners and can address a variety of operator challenges, which is at the heart of our Scoop product innovation mission,” says Stacey Kinkaid, vice president of product development and innovation for US Foods. “Collectively, our team brings more than 400 years of product development, institutional knowledge and first-hand experience within the restaurant industry to our product development process. They understand the ins and outs of a busy food service kitchen and the evolving trends shaping diner preferences to create the right products at the right time to help our operators Make It.”   

Among the Fall Scoop lineup is Devonshire® Cookie Butter Banana Pie, a modern twist on a British classic. US Foods product developer Maria Zannis created a dessert inspired by her favorite Banoffee pie, combined with the widely popular cookie butter, which is projected to grow on menus by 63 percent in the next four years. The ready-to-use pie includes layers of cookie butter crust, naturally flavored banana cheesecake made with bananas, cookie butter mousse, naturally flavored vanilla whipped cream with ground vanilla beans and chocolate-covered toffee bits. It is pre-sliced and can save the operator 60 minutes of labor per case versus creating the pie from scratch.  

Other Fall Scoop highlights include:

• Chef’s Line® All-Natural Cuban-Inspired Ropa Vieja – US Foods product developer and chef Amy Bracco, with consultative support from center of the plate specialist and chef Frankie Ruiz, a Cuban cuisine aficionado, created an authentic yet approachable product, with cost and back-of-house labor savings in mind. The team started with a cost-efficient cut of beef that delivers on the texture and authentic “rope-like” strands expected with ropa vieja and added red peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, green olives, garlic, salt and pepper, bay leaf and cumin to bring the national dish of Cuba to operators. This product is sous-vide-cooked for nine hours to save the operator more than an hour of labor savings per case versus making from scratch and ensures the flavors of each ingredient are infused into the beef. The item contains no ingredients found on the US Foods Unpronounceables List®.
• Chef’s Line® Battered Ricotta and Mascarpone Filled Zucchini Blossoms – A classic Italian dish supplied from their home country. Product developer Amy Bracco saw an opportunity for restaurants to extend the seasonality of these delicacies by sourcing zucchini blossoms grown year-round from Italian farms, which are then hand-filled with an all-cheese blend of Italian ricotta and mascarpone cheeses and then hand-battered. This item can save an operator 60 minutes of labor savings per case versus creating from scratch and contains no ingredients found on the US Foods Unpronounceables List®.
• Cross Valley Farms® Hibiscus Infused Fruit Blend – Hibiscus is projected to grow on menus by 35 percent in the next four years. Product developer and chef Eric Clark, who spent years teaching culinary arts before joining US Foods, sought to create a modernized and versatile fruit blend. Inspired by the appearance of sangria, the ready-to-use blend combines diced apples, pineapples, oranges and mangoes in a hibiscus infusion, creating an easy-to-use ingredient that will save the operator 50 minutes of labor per case versus creating from scratch. The highly versatile item can be used as an ingredient in a signature chutney or compote, a colorful spin on fruit salsas, or behind the bar within a signature mocktail or cocktail or as a fruity addition to teas.