Gorton’s Seafood has vowed to simplify its ingredients and introduce cleaner recipes for its brand products by the time 2017 is over.
According to a company release, the culinary team at Gorton’s has been diligently working to review and revamp recipes to ensure that the best tasting seafood can be achieved via household means. Gorton’s will roll out nine of these new, simplified recipes over the course of the next two months.
"Delicious, quality seafood isn't just about the seafood," said Mary Beth Gangloff, who is leading the simplification charge at Gorton's. "It's about the grated parmesan and Romano cheese in our Parmesan Crusted Cod or the beer in our Beer Battered Fillets. This effort is about doing everything we can possibly do to ensure that nothing gets in the way of our real, authentic ingredients. Our goal is to ensure that the goodness of our seafood reaches our consumers in every single bite.”
The company took into account feedback from customers when reworking the recipes, as well as its own staffers.
"In addition to feedback from consumers, this effort comes from our team's desire to offer the best possible products with the fewest ingredients on the back panel," said Gangloff. "As food lovers, employees of one of the world's leading seafood brands, and pioneers in seafood innovation, we know and love seafood. We believe the best way for us to offer great tasting, quality seafood is to continue to improve and revitalize our delicious products."
Not only will consumers be greeted with new recipes from Gorton’s over the months to come – there will be a different format for listing ingredients on the packages as well. This altered format will make ingredient lists easier to read and comprehend; breadcrumb coating ingredients, for instance, will be listed separately from vegetable oil and/or wild Alaska pollock.
"Reading nutrition labels is so important when selecting healthy food choices, but can also be really confusing at times," said Allison Stowell, MS, RD, CDN, founder of Stowell Nutrition. "When a leading brand like Gorton's takes the steps to not only simplify the ingredients, but also make the labels clearer and easier to understand, it's a great step towards brand transparency and, ultimately, improved public health."
Gorton’s will release new products as far out as the beginning of 2017, and anticipates each offering to have simpler ingredients and a new label by the end of that year.
"As a leader in the seafood industry, Gorton's commitment to providing consumers with simplified products and labels is an important step toward improving the industry as a whole," concluded Linda Cornish, Executive Director of the Seafood Nutrition Partnership. "Gorton's ongoing commitment to sustainable seafood has strengthened the brand's position and this effort is just one more way they are demonstrating their dedication to providing quality, sustainable seafood. We applaud Gorton's for investing in this process."
