“We’ve got new products in our guacamole category,” said Tracey Altman, vice president of brand marketing for Fresherized Foods Inc. in Saginaw, TX, in an interview with The Produce News July 25. Fresherized is the manufacturer of “Wholly Guacamole, rated by Nielsen as the leading guacamole brand in the United States.

The new guacamole products are a home-style guacamole and a new Avocado Ranch-style snack pack.

The new home style guacamole was currently being “sold in right now to retailers” and should be An assortment of ‘Wholly Guacamole’ and ‘Wholly Salsa’ retail products from Fresherized Foods.on the shelf around September, said Ms. Altman. It comes in seven ounce and 14-ounce sizes.

“With the rise of the tableside guacamole in Mexican restaurants” and now even “popping up” at other restaurants, consumers are wanting a chunkier guacamole. The new home style product is chunkier and “really emulates tabletop,” she said. “We have added a tomato and serrano pepper, sea salt, and some lime juice.”

In the snack pack category, “we are excited about our new Avocado Ranch” flavor, Ms. Altman said. “We have developed a non-dairy ranch dressing that we have put into our guacamole” which has the “yumminess” of ranch dressing without the calories and fat. “We believe it is going to be great” as a veggie dip and as a spread on turkey sandwiches or grilled chicken, for example. “It is coming in our snack pack,” in either a three-pack version (three two-ounce pouches per pack) or a six-pack version, she said. “WeTracy Altman are selling in now, and we are going to be launching it in November and December as a soft launch,” with a “hard launch” to follow in January “during diet month.”

“Wholly Guacamole” products are manufactured using a technique called high pressure processing, or HPP. Jay Alley, vice president of sales and marketing, explained that the process involves the application of 87,000 pounds of isostatic pressure per square inch in a cold water bath to the packaged product. HPP “kills all of the bad microorganisms” yet retains “all of the flavor and nutrients, because we didn’t have to use any heat or chemicals.”

The company has also introduced a new salsa line employing the HPP technology, he said.

Fresherized is proud to be part of the avocado industry, according to Ms. Altman. “We’re in this together” and are part of “this extraordinary category that has lots of health benefits.”

“Wholly Guacamole” shares with the fresh avocado industry the goal of increasing avocado consumption. “If you make your own guacamole on Sunday and you use [our product] on Wednesday because you are in a rush … we all win,” she said.

“Wholly Guacamole,” as a brand, has only been around for five years, although Fresherized has been manufacturing the product for longer. There has been tremendous growth since then. “Five years ago, guacamole was a party product” and a product for holidays and special occasions. Now, the sales sheets no longer show the holiday sales spices of the past, she said. “We are finding that people are buying it every day. Trends of healthy eating, snacking, and seeing [guacamole] in restaurants have really helped catapult the category.”

“Wholly Guacamole” will be doing two promotions for the fall season, Ms. Altman said. One is a tie-in with “Wimpy Kid” movies, books and DVDs in partnership with Fox and author Jeff Kinney, who “drew a special drawing just for us of his characters eating guacamole.” The other is a Homegating promotion that encourages families to use guacamole in creative ways for parties at home.

Fresherized was acquired in 2011 by MegaMex Foods LLC in Chino, CA, and operates as a subsidiary. MegaMex is a joint venture of Hormel Foods, headquartered in Austin, MN and Herdez Del Fuerte, S.A. de C.V., based in Mexico City, Mexico.