Giorgio Fresh continues to innovate with mushrooms

Giorgio Fresh, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, has tons of experience working with mushrooms, and its longevity has made it a leader in the industry.

“We are very passionate about mushrooms as they have many attributes that consumers are looking for,” said Greg Sagan, executive vice president of sales and marketing for the Blandon, PA-based company. “They are versatile, lend themselves well to recipes and are healthy and delicious.”

Giorgio has a company-wide commitment to quality, wholesome mushrooms, consumer health and providing a clean environment.

“We pride ourselves on being leaders in insights and innovation,” Sagan said. “Giorgio focuses on quality, service, and consumer insights and innovation. We approach each customer individually to understand their needs and objectives, and then develop a customized program to drive sales and meet those objectives.”

When it comes to variety, Giorgio works with a host of different conventional and organic mushroom offerings. These include white, brown and exotic mushrooms like oyster, shiitake, maitake and trumpet.

“Innovation is very important to Giorgio. It is how we stay ahead of trends and take the company into the future,” Sagan said. “We’ve long been known for innovation in the industry and work hard to bring new ideas straight to the consumer.”

For example, in the past year, the company launched blendabella and Savory Wild, two new flavors that have been popular with consumers. Savory Wild is made from portabella mushrooms and is a plant-based, healthy snacking solution in the on-trend jerky category. Made with whole food ingredients, Savory Wild is naturally gluten-free, low in calories and fat and packed with the antioxidant-rich mineral Selenium.

“We spend a lot of time understanding today’s consumer and emerging trends in order to offer consumers what they want,” Sagan said. “Product development is important to us as it allows us to continue being a leader in innovation in the category. Consumers today lead very busy lives as they juggle work, daily lives and families. Offering products that offer convenience to the consumer is very important.”

Giorgio also launched a line of ovenable and microwaveable stuffed mushrooms in three flavors: Fiesta Cheese Blend, Cheese and Imitation Bacon Bits Blend and Artichoke, Spinach, and Cheese Blend — all of which are offered in a microwavable tray.

Over the past nine decades, Giorgio has experienced a great deal of growth, and that should continue in the years ahead. Sagan noted some of the greatest opportunities lie in promoting the many attributes of mushrooms.

“Mushrooms are healthy, versatile and they work well with meat as part of the growing ‘trend to blend,’” he said. “If retailers position mushrooms with other vegetables with which they pair well, they should see increased sales. It’s all about taking the guesswork out of shopping and cooking for the consumer.”

Additionally, over the past few years, consumers have started caring more about healthy alternatives. Many of these consumers are millennials to whom that is important, and the company knows it must cater to what they are seeking — foods that are chockfull of vitamins and minerals with messaging to go along with it.

“We have seen an emerging trend of mushrooms as a snack,” Sagan said. “Driving their versatility and usage is very important. Our newly relaunched website really puts the consumer at the forefront and takes guesswork out of cooking through our arsenal of delicious recipes.”