Veg-Centric Consumers Drive Organic Vegetable Crumble and Noodle Craze

The latest explosive trend in fresh produce—pre-packaged and ready-to-use vegetable noodles and crumbles—seems to exhibit tremendous expansion and staying power. Retailers, growers, and processors continue to follow this trend, seeing its long-term power and value in organic produce.

Organic consumers are enthused about ready-to-use organic veg noodle and crumble options that fall in line with a healthy and allergen-free diet. Starting with consumers adverse to carbohydrates and gluten, trends have been fueled by social media about all foods perceived as being in the healthy realm—low-carb, gluten-free, gut-healthy, green eating, low-cal, organic, and more. They expanded into the produce choices of the average veg noodle and crumble eater, who in general eats more vegetables in all forms than the average person. Most vegetable noodles and riced vegetable options have about 90% less carbs than pasta or rice and contain about 75% less calories per serving.

Organic consumers are enthused about ready-to-use organic veg noodle and crumble options that fall in line with a healthy and allergen-free diet.

Retail demand in this category meant serious growth potential for retail-ready brands like Cece's™ Veggie Noodle Co. of Austin, Texas. The void in pasta alternatives that cooked well and tasted great led Cece's to become leaders in innovation. They emphasize cooking functionality and the ability to mimic texture, taste, and flavor of gluten/grain pasta products.

Cece's™ Veggie Noodle Co. of Austin, Texas

Cece's offerings include various sizes and shapes and they’re one of the few companies offering more than just one noodle cut/shape. Cece's continues to innovate with pasta cuts; their Veggiccine™line is a flat noodle with the shape and functionality of fettuccine noodles, currently available in butternut squash and zucchini. Mason Arnold, Cece's founder, points to the specificities of a cut in determining the performance of the noodle or riced vegetable. He believes Cece's riced cauliflower and broccoli are so popular because of the company’s research and diligence in determining the perfect cut to achieve the ideal texture. Arnold’s engineering background contributed to several patent-pending noodle-cutting mechanisms and machines that the company uses to improve noodle shape, texture, and shelf life.

Cece's™ offerings include various sizes and shapes and they’re one of the few companies offering more than just one noodle cut/shape.

Imperative to the company’s mission is their emphasis on quality and performance. Arnold reminds people that the category has only been around a few years, and he believes there will be increased demand for improved functionality in these products. “As the category continues to mature, so will consumers’ palettes. We want to deliver new shapes, textures, and flavors to support that evolution.” The company is set to debut several innovative products in summer 2018.

The increased demand has shown equally impressive opportunities for organic growers, processors, and packers like Earthbound Farms, headquartered in San Juan Bautista, California. Organic broccoli and cauliflower florets continue to be a dominant retail item, and the fallout from raw processing has led to a new home in the crumble category.

Organic broccoli and cauliflower florets continue to be a dominant retail item.

Tyler Clear, organic sales manager for Deardorff Family Farms of Oxnard, California, corroborates the explosive demand that organic cauliflower growers have been experiencing and reports “organic cauliflower packages and cauliflower revenue in 2017 were up about 35%from 2015.” He further states they have seen significant rise in demand on the processor side, and notes increased demand in all cauliflower offerings, including Deardorff’s purple and orange specialty varietals.

Large-scale retail distribution for ready-to-eat products is never simple. Companies like Pacific Coast Fruit Company of Portland, Oregon show the regional success model in the processing sector of the organic vegetable noodle and crumble arena. Their fresh-cut and pre-prepared foods processing center offers retailers organic ready-to-go noodle and crumble options as well as bulk deli kits for in-store packouts. Pacific Coast Fruit processes about 400 items a week, and over 25% of those are organic: cauliflower and broccoli crumbles and medleys; and zucchini, butternut squash, yellow squash, beet, kohlrabi, carrot, yam, and sweet potato spirals, to name just a few. Keenen Hatfield, an organic buyer for Pacific Coast Fruit, said that currently the sales for organic cauliflower rice is outpacing the conventional counterpart.