Noodles and pasta held its own at this year’s Summer Fancy Food Show, reflecting ongoing shifts in how producers approach quality, ingredient sourcing and consumer preferences around flavor and texture.
Across Summer Fancy Food Show’s show floor in New York City, brands highlighted flavor- and quality-forward attributes with messaging that emphasizes nostalgia and delivers on convenience.
For Laughing Tiger, the mission is to offer pan-Asian flavored noodles from Korea, Thailand and Japan in the frozen aisle. The brand’s noodle portfolio, designed by Japanese Chef and Founder Kohei, includes Korean BBQ, drunken, dan dan and ramen noodles in spicy miso and shoyu.
“Our whole thesis is bringing authentic Pan-Asian flavors to the freezer aisle, which has largely been dominated by a lot of American-Chinese traditional flavors. But our view is that does not reflect what people consume in Asia,” shared a spokesperson for Laughing Tiger during the show.
The brand opted for frozen noodles to lock in the freshness and allow for consumers to drop the noodles and sauce into one skillet “that can feed a family,” the spokesperson added.
Currently in Walmart and select ShopRites, the brand’s pitch to buyers is centered on premiumization and data-backed demand around cleaner ingredients and a focus on wellness – attributes the noodle category has been lacking in the freezer aisle, the spokesperson said.
Korean cheese ramen hits a comfort-food sweet spot
Otoki North America spotlighted its long-running jin ramen line, which is characterized by having a hearty beef bone broth and chewy noodles — and a cheese ramen innovation launched earlier this year.
The new products are generating buzz for their bold texture and rich, cheesy flavors in either cheddar or mascarpone, according to Isaac Lee who represented the company during the show.
Otoki also featured its stir fry line, which offers a thicker texture similar to Italian pasta, Lee added.
Lee said ecommerce feedback on flavor and texture – particularly from parents – is shaping product development and positioning for the company’s new products which launched in March.
The line’s blue-packaged cheddar-mascarpone flavor is made with natural flavoring, while the spicy pink-pack uses artificial flavors due to its heat component.
Premium Italian pasta embraces regional integrity and private label growth
On the fresh pasta side, refrigerated pasta and dip brand Sauces ‘n Love and its manufacturer BC Gourmet highlighted traditional Italian processing and premium ingredients as its differentiator.
“For us, the premium proposition starts from selecting the best raw materials and by following the way you will make the product at home. So we do not use any shortcuts. For example, the gnocchi, we use real potatoes. We do not use potato flake, potato purees or potato powders. We process the whole potato, we wash it, we steam cook it and then same thing goes with the pasta,” said Alberto Bianco, marketing lead at BC Gourmet.
The company operates two pasta plants in Italy’s Modena and Piemonte to ensure regional authenticity.
“We have one facility in Modena, where we make all the tortellini, the tagliatelle and the tortelloni. And we have one in Piemonte, where we make cannolotti, Ravi del plain and all the forms of pasta that are typical. In Italy, each region has its own recipe, its pasta shape. So we tend to give value to the product by keeping it faithfully identical to what you would make at home, but especially making it in region where the product is usually regional from,” Bianco said.
Sauces ‘n Love also plays in the private label space, using shape and packaging to differentiate products without compromising recipe quality.
“Private label tends to have a little bit lower positioning compared to the premium brand because the supermarket wants to lure consumer in with the price,” he explained.
The company’s gnocchi, for example, keeps the same recipe for private label but offers a different shape and packaging than the original.
