Trident Seafoods | Protein Noodles
On the verge of 2019 – as the 26th annual Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition played itself out in Seattle, Washington before the attendees of the 2018 Pacific Marine Expo – Trident Seafoods’ latest innovations were honored as top of class.
The Seattle-headquartered company saw its Protein Noodles win first place in the competition’s Retail category, while Alaska Natural Pet Products (a division of Trident Seafoods Corporation) won the Beyond the Plate prize for its Wild Alaska Pollock Oil. A crowd-pleaser, Trident’s gluten-free pollock-based noodle creation was also elected as the winner of the Seattle People’s Choice award.
Trident Seafoods Vice President of Marketing John Salle, who accepted the awards on behalf of the company, thanked affiliated fishermen and the research and development arm of Trident Seafoods for “looking for ways to bring more fish to more people and make Alaska seafood more convenient,” reported National Fisherman in November 2018.
“Make your resolution the noodle revolution,” Salle urged the expo’s audience at the time.
Soon after its Alaska Symphony of Seafood victories, Trident secured funding from the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) to market some of its latest pollock-based innovations, including its Protein Noodles. At the end of January 2019, GAPP said it would be funding four new marketing and consumer awareness projects in North America for USD 330,000 (EUR 287,000), with Trident Seafoods heading up three of those projects.
A part of GAPP’s North American Partnerships program, a portion of the funding was dedicated to helping Trident market its Protein Noodles to club stores – an exciting endeavor for GAPP CEO Craig Morris.
“Everybody wants to try the noodles – they are outstanding. You would never know that the raw material is wild Alaska pollock,” Morris told SeafoodSource at the beginning of the year. “It’s a brand-new market for wild Alaska pollock, especially our surimi blocks.”
The product fits perfectly into many consumers’ current low-carb lifestyles, such as the Keto diet, he added.
“The funding from this program enables Trident to stretch its marketing dollars even further, to reach more people, in more places, more often and to help us introduce innovative new products like our all new Protein Noodles made with wild Alaska pollock to consumers,” Trident Seafoods CEO Joe Bundrant said in a press release.
Fast-forward to the 2019 Seafood Expo North America event in Boston, Massachusetts, where the Protein Noodles were featured in the event’s New Product Showcase – and were a resounding hit among the expo’s many attendees.
“It’s pretty much been non-stop for the two days,” Salle told SeafoodSource on the last day of the 2019 expo.
“The reception has been fabulous, and I think what’s been really cool is the industry is also really talking positively about it, kind of congratulating us on an innovation,” Salle said. “That’s neat to hear from your peers,” he added.
A flavor-neutral pasta alternative, Trident’s Protein Noodles are available fully cooked and ready-to-eat, either hot or cold. A single three-ounce serving of the product contains 10 grams of protein, 7 carbs, and 780 calories. The noodles – which contain 70 miligrams of omega-3s, and are gluten- and fat-free – represent a convergence of values for Trident.
“Our focus on Alaska pollock, and our focus on making value-added products that are on-trend and better for you, and easy to serve, it all came together,” Salle said.
Trident is looking to enter into new areas of the supermarket with its Protein Noodles, including into the fully-prepared, ready-to-eat sections of the store.
“We feel that we need to be in that fully-prepared, ready-to-eat section,” Salle noted. “Even relative to the fresh pasta section in the store, those products you still have to cook and prepare, where as this can be seen as a ready meal in the pasta section.”
In May 2019, Trident was awarded even more GAPP funding for expanding demos of its Protein Noodles to additional Costco stores and increasing marketing to foodservice operators. The funding will allow Trident to perform an additional demo in Costco stores in the San Francisco Bay area in California and in the Northeast U.S., from Virginia to Connecticut.
“We have found demos to be extremely effective in introducing this item to consumers,” Salle told SeafoodSource this summer. “The GAPP award helps us stretch our marketing dollar and its reach much further.”
The company also recently introduced the noodles and its other Protein Fish products to the Japanese market for the first time at the 21st Japan International Seafood and Technology Expo at Tokyo Big Sight.
It hasn’t been with just the Protein Noodle product that Trident has seen traction this year. In June, the company partnered with celebrity chef Nancy Fuller, making her the official brand ambassador for its Louis Kemp Crab Delights surimi line. Throughout the rest of 2019, Fuller, who stars on “Farmhouse Rules” on the Food Network, will appear in advertising and promotional campaigns for Louis Kemp.
“This family business has the values, integrity and quality of what I believe in. Louis Kemp Crab Delights is a product designed with nutrition as well as versatility in mind, and appeals to many people, in many great tasting recipes – some of which I have been making for years,” Fuller said in a Trident press release. “I’m proud to be a spokesperson for this great brand made with Wild Alaska Pollock, which is the most sustainable fish on the planet."
Photo courtesy of Trident Seafoods
