Blount Fine Foods Launches Single-Serve Soups

Blount Fine Foods, a Fall River, Mass.-based manufacturer of premium soups, sauces and side dishes for private label retail and foodservice, announced the launch of premium single-serve (10-ounce) fresh retail soups.

“This pack size will allow retailers to attract new consumers looking for smaller portions such as the lunch crowd or someone dining alone,” said Bob Sewall, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Blount Fine Foods. “It also gives them the opportunity to promote through ‘bundling’ such as soup and salad or soup and a sandwich.”

To launch the single-serve soups, Blount had to overcome the challenge of getting each batch of soup into the small cups before the cuts of meat, vegetables and pasta began to settle, which could lead to product inconsistency. It was able to do so by developing a proprietary processing and packaging technology that ensures product quality and consistency, the company said.

“This is state-of-the-art filling equipment with a proprietary filling design that allows a smaller portion of soup to be filled very accurately with excellent solids distribution,” Sewall said. “The equipment is also designed to fill the cups at a higher rate of speed to prevent the soup from being overcooked during the filling process. Additionally, our R&D team designed the 10-ounce recipes with the smaller fill in mind. This means the solids-to-broth ratio and the particulate size are adjusted for the best distribution possible.”

Influenced heavily by the Blount brand foodservice soups, the new offerings, which boast a 70-day shelf life, include New England Clam Chowder, Creamy Tomato (gluten-free), Broccoli Cheddar, Chicken Tortilla (gluten-free), Baked Potato and Chicken Noodle. The line is shipped and sold fresh, and available for retail in cases of eight 10-ounce cups, the company said.