Oats: Not just for breakfast
Next we heard from Chef Jeannine Sacco at Grainful, which has created a completely new food category: savory steel cut oat-based shelf-stable sides and frozen entrees. Now before you start envisaging mushy oatmeal with veggies, said Sacco, remember that steel cut oats are more like rice – chewy, grainy and nutty – than the rolled oats you get in instant hot cereal, so the end result is more like risotto than breakfast.
Grainful products are now in 1500+ stores and velocity (sales per sku per store per week) is strong, said Sacco, who reckons oats are the “most under-utilized grains out there,” and is now working on sprouted oat tortillas, oat energy bites, and a range of other products.