Paul Frederic, senior vice president of sales and marketing for To-Jo Mushrooms Inc., headquartered in Avondale, PA, told The Produce News that the Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference & Expo in Monterey, CA, on July 26-28 was “the best ever show from our prospective.”

Besides displaying its full line of fresh mushrooms and processed mushroom products, To-Jo featured its new “Bella Blended” meatballs.

To-Jo took a hint from the Mushroom Council’s Swapabiity campaign launched last year to develop the meatballs, in which a portion of the protein has been replaced with mushrooms. Frederic said the meatballs “taste just like your mama’s.”

To-Jo Mushrooms’ ‘Bella Blended’ meatball display at the PMA Foodservice Expo New Product Showcase.“We sampled the meatballs in a pasta-like tomato sauce at the expo, and the response was outstanding,” he added. “These meatballs are so delicious that once people try them they never want to go to the trouble of making their own meatballs again. To-Jo is offering many applications for the item. Besides being perfect with pasta in a traditional tomato sauce, they are also great with gravy over egg noodles, as appetizers, for meatball sandwiches and so many other potential uses. They have a wonderful homemade flavor and tender texture. You get all of this plus the great health benefits: reduced calories, lower fat and cholesterol, and the many nutritional components of mushrooms.”

For foodservice, the product is sold frozen with two five-pound bags to a case.

The “Bella Blended” meatballs were also in the PMA Foodservice Expo’s New Product Showcase, which Frederic said drove a lot of additional traffic to the company’s booth.

Frederic added that the Mushroom Council is doing an outstanding job of educating consumers through numerous media venues, foodservice operators and retailers about the high nutritional benefits of replacing a portion of protein in recipes with chopped mushrooms.

Besides being a delicious treat for visitors to To-Jo’s booth at the expo, Frederic said that people were expressing their admiration of the health aspect.

“There is a strong current effort to increase fresh fruits and vegetables in school programs, and that is also giving mushrooms a boost,” he said. “All of this attention is driving more and more people to their produce departments to buy mushrooms.

“We’re right in a sweet spot,” he continued. “Mushrooms are good and are good for you. They are low in calories, low in fat, have no cholesterol and are a perfect meat alternative. The product fits perfectly with people’s concerns today.”

He also noted that quick-serve and casual restaurants, including major chains, were most notably drawn to the “Bella Blended” mushrooms. When compared to ground meat, mushrooms can offer a considerable savings for restaurants. And people like the fact that they can reduce the amount of sodium in the recipes they use mushrooms in because they contain the Umami flavor, which satisfies the palate much like salt does.

“We also had great success promoting our Portabella Sliders at the expo,” said Frederic. “We’re trying to get across to customers and prospective customers that we are a fully integrated company that offers a full line of fresh and processed mushrooms. And we give outstanding service. Our processed line is distributed nationally, and our fresh line is distributed throughout the east.”

Frederic said the topic of food safety was broached a couple of times by visitors at the PMA Foodservice expo. Company officials immediately point out that To-Jo is Safe Quality Food Level 3-certified.

“Our most recent scores were 95 and 97,” said Frederic. “These are significant numbers in the industry today.”

He added that the company is currently undertaking a strategic planning process with an outside consulting firm to determine the company’s future growth and evolvement.

“This is a major internal focus for us now, and is important in our planning for the future of the company,” said Frederic. “We also plan to expand our Avondale facility beginning in the coming month. The expansion plans are now being finalized.”