Innovating a Healthier Pasta

 Over 80% of Americans eat pasta each year. That’s a lot of noodles. In fact, total pasta sales have grown an average of 4% CAGR over the past 25 years.

But at the same time, consumers are searching for better-for-you options, whether its sustainably sourced, plant-based, gluten-free, high-protein, or all ofthe above. As a result, higher-protein pastas made from legumes like lentils and chickpeas have grown at 3x the rate of total pasta in the past 5 to 10 years. One of the first ready-cooked pastas made from seafood debuted in 2019. But it had a problem. It didn’t really taste like traditional pasta. It soon started disappearing from store shelves as a result.

Not to be deterred, American Seafoods Group – the world’s largest at-sea processor of Wild Alaska Pollock – partnered with Pescanova USA – the US subsidiary of Grupo Nueva Pescanova, a €900mil global seafood provider – to create a Wild Alaska Pollock-based pasta that would taste like the real thing. Not an easy task. We had to get the concept right, but more importantly, we had to deliver a great tasting product.

What to do? Get consumers to co-create the bundle with us. We started with a small-scale on-line bulletin board study where we had consumers both taste the product AND create their own advertisement for Pescanova Protein Pasta. Hearing consumers sell the idea in their own words gave the Marketing Team direction to optimize the concept. And having them try the product at home in a natural setting gave the R&D Team direction to optimize the product.

Once both concept and product were refined, we went back to consumers with our improved versions in a Home-Use Test.

The results? Pescanova Protein Pasta debuted at the 2022 Seafood Expo North America to resounding reviews and will reach supermarket shelves later in 2022.