‘Returning to routine’ with Pound of Ground Crumbles

The product stays in the freezer and cooks right from frozen.

By Sammy Bredar

THE NATIONAL PROVISIONER PODCAST

Pound of Ground Crumbles

Heidi Meyer discusses consumer research and Pound of Ground Crumbles product

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Heidi Meyer, founder and co-creator of Pound of Ground Crumbles, recently sat down with The National Provisioner to discuss a consumer research survey conducted by OnePoll, as well as the Pound of Ground Crumbles product.

Meyer said that the launch of the survey coincided with the ‘return to routine,’ which Meyer describes as the time when summer ends and families with kids must start thinking more about dinner and preparing those meals.

“The other thing we found is that there’s actually two ‘return to routines,’ and the second is after the holidays. And, in fact, January, February and March are actually the busiest and most challenging according to households with kids.”

Meyer said that though people think about the typical “Sunday dinner,” that is actually the least likely day for families to sit down together for an evening meal. “In fact, Tuesdays and Wednesday were the highest consumption of family dinner nights,” Meyer said. “And also, interestingly, those were number 1 and number 2 for people not having a plan for what to make for dinner, which is also kind of funny.”

Meyer attributes the lack of a plan for Tuesday and Wednesday to consumer shopping patterns, particularly for parents who work.

To address needs of consumers and make dinner preparation easier, Pound of Ground Crumbles was born.

The Pound of Ground Crumbles product stays in the freezer and cooks right from frozen, tailoring to these uncovered consumer needs.

“We’ve gotten great reviews on our Pound of Ground Crumbles,” Meyer said. “It’s just exactly that moment of ‘no plans for dinner, no time to defrost, I don’t know what I’m gonna make.’ And it cooks right from the freezer in less than 10 minutes.”

The survey conducted by OnePoll uncovered two other important consumer findings. “The study had 36% of people said they struggle making a meal because of missing ingredients. And by-and-large, that’s fresh stuff. It’s meat, and it’s vegetables,” Meyer said. “So being able to have a quick solution so it’s not missing, it’s just maybe somewhere where you can grab it and cook it.”

By having a more accessible product, consumers do not have to worry as much about food preparation.

“We also found in part of the survey, 33% struggle waiting for their meat to thaw. 3 out of 4 people forget to thaw the meat, frankly, and 2 out of 3 forget to thaw it all the time. So having something that cooks from frozen, suddenly we took away that barrier.”

The Pound of Ground Crumbles product addresses these consumer needs and shopping patterns, providing an accessible option for when consumers do not have much time to prepare dinner.

Looking forward, Meyer says Pound of Ground is looking to add grass-fed and different lean levels in the future.

KEYWORDS: consumer trends value-added meat

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Sammy Bredar is Group Editor of The National Provisioner and Dairy Foods. She covers the meat and dairy processing industries while leading editorial coverage of membrane technology across both publications. Bredar serves on the Board of Directors of the Women's Meat Industry Network and earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Ball State University.