Tyson aims to turn scraps into snacks
MANUFACTURING
CHIC AG O • Tyson Foods Inc., the largest U. S. meat producer, wants to move beyond traditional chicken products and get deeper into the snack game.
In its so- called innovation lab, Tyson assembled a team of seven employees in January that is looking to make snacks by capitalizing on another hot foodie topic: the issue of waste. The team is developing a protein snack that the company says will utilize ingredients like poultry scraps, spent grain from brewers and vegetable pulp from juicers.
Their goal is to develop a new consumer product on store shelves in six months.
Sales of meat snacks have surged almost 30 per cent in the U. S. over the last four years, hitting US$ 2.9 billion in 2017, Nielsen data show. Consumers are embracing high- protein products as they cut back on sugar. Tyson is looking to capture some of that zeitgeist.
“We were looking for a way to deliver faster innovation — new growth, increasing speed,” Sally Grimes, Tyson’s president of prepared foods, said in a telephone interview.
This is Tyson’s latest pivot into packaged products.
Known mostly for poultry, the company has pushed beyond its roots recently. It acquired sandwich maker AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc. last year for about US$4 billion, the largest purchase since taking over Hillshire Brands Co. in 2014.
The latter deal brought the jerky brand Golden Island to Tyson, which has also used the Hillshire name to launch a line of meat snacks. The new innovation team is trying its hand at in- house product development.
Tyson’s move to packaged products comes as traditional food companies struggle to compete with trendy upstarts like Chobani and Kind Snacks. Over the last three years, the 10 largest U.S. food firms — giants including General Mills Inc. and Kellogg Co. — have seen about US$ 17 billion in revenue evaporate as consumers gravitate to newer brands.
Still, snacks have proven to be an area of growth.
Tyson CEO Tom Hayes said on a Feb. 8 earnings call the meat producer wants to be a “modern food company with a diverse portfolio of protein brands.”