Green tea in ham may sound too much like Dr Seuss to be true, but the combination is set to change the processed ham market and boost the local industry by shifting large volumes of Australian-produced pork.
Hans has developed its new Country Fresh packaged ham to tap into the growing consumer desire for healthy, wholesome and quality produce.
And while that may sound easy, the Country Fresh has been 18 months in the making, with more than $150,000 spent on scientific research which has revolutionised the processed ham sector.
"We were really looking for a customer-driven solution in ham, and we started with quite a deal of research, particularly in the quantitative area, searching for what consumers really wanted in ham in an effort to improve that segment," Hans retail marketing manager Steve Bowden said.
"Out of that research it started to become quite apparent that consumers wanted certain specifications, certain attributes in the product itself, but a country-style wholesome hearty product was the forerunner."
The result is Hans Country Fresh, a thicker cut of sliced ham sold in 100-gram packages, but with an off-the-bone flavour and the health benefits of containing 25 percent less salt than other packaged hams thanks to the use of green tea as the anti-oxidant agent.
"Significantly reduced salt, use of the natural antioxidant green tea extract, 97pc fat free and convenient slices to meet consumers protein needs – all these elements give me the confidence to recommend Hans Country Fresh as a healthy and nutritious choice to my patients," dietician Julie Gilbert said.
Country Fresh is already on supermarket shelves around the country, and last week impressed the 35,000 visitors to the Melbourne Good Fine and Wine show.
"When trying the product people remarked that they haven't tasted a ham like Country Fresh in years," Hans general manager of market Terry McMahon said.
"We didn't have a single person who made a negative comment about any of the Country Fresh products. In fact, we had people continually wanting more samples and enquiring where they could buy the products."
Hans will take its new product to the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show later this month, hoping to further bolster consumer interest, which is all good news for the Australian pork industry.
If sales go according to plan, the new product is hoped to shift between six and 10 tonnes per week of ham supplied exclusively by piggeries on Queensland's Darling Downs and the South Burnett.
The three-bone leg ham will be supplied principally by Swickers, in which Hans owns a stake.
Hans has also launched a fresh pork range under the Barker's Creek brand, in what is a significant shift away from the company’s image as a producer of traditional European-style smallgoods.
"We're doing our little bit. Even though yes we do use imported smallgoods, we're also working hard to grow our Australian pork side of the business as well," Mr McMahon said.
But the fact that Hans has developed a packaged ham product is encouraging news for the local industry, given the growth in sales in the dairy section of supermarkets ahead of those in the deli area.
"There is behavioural change occurring in shopping and more people are heading towards the dairy case than there are to the deli," Mr McMahon said.
He put this down to the issues of convenience and the extended shelf life on offer for consumers from packaged ham.
And by combining with an off-the-bone flavour, Hans believes it is on to a winner.
"One of our R&D primary objectives was to make a ham as close to off-the-bone ham, but still a sliced packaged ham, as we could possibly get it," Mr Bowden said.
"And we've pretty much achieved that. There were a number of times in testing people likened it to off-the-bone type product."
Email a friend