Inspired by its customers, pasta sauce and condiment brand Yo Mama’s expands into enriched pastas and cooking wines, crafting a lineup to stand out in the category and align with evolving health preferences.
Yo Mama’s debuted its protein- and fiber-enriched pasta designed to complement its line of sauces and condiments at Natural Products Expo West, according to Kristen Streger, brand and e-commerce manager for Yo Mama’s.
Each of the gluten-free and low-glycemic penne, fusilli and elbow pastas are made with alubia beans (also known as white kidney beans) and rice flour and contain 18 grams of protein and 10.5 grams of fiber per 3.5-ounce serving – aligning with the company’s focus on better-for-you products, per the company.
The pastas are “something that we really try to innovate and have a clean, healthy product to go with our pasta sauces,” Streger said.
Protein content continues to shape the gluten-free pasta category, with brands like Kaizen, which uses lupini flour and fava bean protein to deliver up to 20g of protein and 15g of fiber per serving, and Banza, whose chickpea pasta offers 20g of protein and 13g of fiber per serving.
Yo Mama’s reformulates pasta sauce, launches clean-label cooking wines
Yo Mama’s reformulated its Vodka Sauce with fresh, heavy cream aiming to fully coat its pastas, Streger said.
The company also featured its signature red sauces during the show – including Basil and Roasted Garlic – made with no added sugar, along with its specialty Classic Alfredo. Yo Mama’s also highlighted its lineup of dressings and condiments like Buffalo, Sesame and Greek, known for their keto-friendly, dairy-free and gluten-free formulations
Yo Mama’s foray into condiments includes its cooking wines, which launched earlier this year. The lineup of white, sherry and red cooking wines contain no added sugar and are vegan and kosher, Streger added.
“For the cooking wines, we looked at the category as a whole, and it’s a very saturated category as far as it’s just owned by a couple of brands. We really wanted to get into that space and be able to offer a better-for-you product that has no preservatives, no fillers,” she explained, adding that the cooking wines compliment Yo Mama’s current line of products.
Yo Mama’s cooking wines contain three ingredients: wine, salt and ascorbic acid, compared to its competitors like Goya and Ka-Me which contain preservatives like metabisulfite.
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Addressing consumer preferences for better-for-you pantry products
Consumer preferences for clean label pantry products are the impetus behind Yo Mama’s product expansion, Streger said.
“People are really conscious of what is on the label nowadays, and so we really kind of stem back to what your mom has in her pantry,” Streger explained, emphasizing Yo Mama’s slogan.
For example, the Vodka Sauce reformulation reflects consumer feedback on formulating with simpler ingredients, she stated.
“The vodka sauce is a great representation of how we’ve listened to customer feedback and really reformulated the product so it is something that customers are looking for. It now has fresh, heavy cream and really meets what they want out of a sauce – more of that texture,” Streger explained.
She added: “We listen to that as well, whether it’s too runny, too thick, too chunky, and take all of that feedback and then review it as a team and see how we can always optimize.”
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Prioritizing DTC to address consumer feedback before retail expansion
For its new products, Yo Mama’s launched on Amazon and on its website as a “easy, direct-to-consumer way for us to get our product out there, get feedback from customers, see what they’re thinking,” Streger said.
The DTC route allows for the company to “see if we have any issues we need to sort out” before mass producing the products into natural and conventional retail channels, Streger noted.
