14 Feb 2013 Meet Amore: new concept for frozen veggie convenience meals
What’s not to love about Amore – a South African food venture that’s offering consumers an interesting new take on convenience veggies/side dishes.
Amore is the brainchild of husband and wife team of Antoinette and Ivan Smook, respectively a food-lover and cold chain refrigeration expert, who have launched a selection of tasty and nutritious vegetable side dishes to encourage South Africans to add more variety to their meals.
Available in eight different options, the heat-and-eat, home-cooked-style dishes take just two minutes from freezer to microwave to plate. For added convenience, each pack contains four individually-bagged portions, believed to be South Africa’s first veggies in this format.
Designed as delicious accompaniments to meat, poultry, seafood and other sources of protein, they are targeting busy mums and professionals, singletons and the elderly with quick and convenient dishes that include ratatouille, spinach and broccoli in a white sauce, butternut and cinnamon, green beans with potato, and more.
The dishes, they say, are all made from fresh ingredients according to traditional or very popular South African recipes. They contain no added MSG or preservatives, no powdered milk or cheese.
“They have been developed to give South Africans, notorious for avoiding their veggies, more of an appetite for them,” says Ivan.
“We joke in this country that so many South Africans refer to chicken as a vegetable, because they have no palate for what comes out of the ground. By missing out on essential nutrients, they are potentially harming their health. Everyone wants to give their families the best they can but it’s not always realistic in terms of daily pressures. These dishes are made with love for varied, sensible eating. That’s why we’ve called the range Amore.”
The concept cuts the hassle of preparing vegetables from scratch and eliminates landing up with unused ingredients that eventually go to waste.
The single portions vary in weight from 80g to 100g depending on the ingredients used. The ratatouille, for example, comes in at 80g per serving, while the potato weighs 100g. They are individually wrapped in recyclable, see-through plastic bags, using eco-friendly, light-weight packaging. Each serving is date-stamped and has a freezer life of six months.
And they come with an attractive price point: each pack of four servings retails for around R22.
“The idea came to us because of the situation in our own home, where we have pro- and anti-broccoli camps. We wanted to find a budget-friendly way of pleasing everyone, while making sure they were still eating a wholesome diet.”
The Smooks, who have developed a strong following within the hospitality trade for their desserts, produce the Amore range from their Paarl-based factory that is already supplying to retail chains in the Western Cape.
For more details, contact Ivan Smook on 021 872 6355, 082 943 0688 or [email protected]