Dipping sauces offer flavor excitement

With dipping sauces driving consumer interest and menu innovation, AFP advanced food products llc. partners with foodservice operators to create custom solutions that deliver bold flavor, speed, and versatility.

Operators can drive increased sales and improve customer retention by leveraging dipping sauces to innovate with new menu items and limited time offers. Dipping sauces can easily be incorporated into foodservice menus as accompaniments to sandwiches, fries, burgers, tacos, chicken tenders, and more.

In addition, unique, flavorful sauces also often become important components of a brand’s identity. This not only leads to deeper customer loyalty, but can also open up retail sales opportunities. AFP can provide retail-friendly packaging solutions for operators seeking to drive incremental retail sales of their signature sauces.

Global and regional flavors

Dipping sauces enable guests to customize their orders and experiment with new and exciting flavors at a time when global and regional cuisines are gaining traction, particularly among young consumers.

“New dipping sauces can tap into the growing trend of safe global flavor experimentation,” says Greg Gable, corporate chef, AFP advanced food products llc, in this article.

The global dipping sauce market was valued at $102.3 billion in 2023, and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 24.2% from 2024-2030, when it is estimated to total $535.7 billion, according to a report from Verified Market Research. The outlook reflects that consumers are increasingly seeking out unusual and exotic flavors to enhance their meals, the report says.

New products create excitement

Dipping sauces also align with operators’ need to deliver new products in simplistic formats, providing an easy way to create excitement, according to Technomic research.

“With younger consumers who may be trading to large snacks and sides as a meal, making signature entrée accompaniments available as dips allows guests to experience those craveable flavors,” Technomic says.

Taco Bell has been in the vanguard of the dipping sauce trend and has rolled out multiple dipping-sauce menu items, including Cheesy Dipping Burritos that come with choice of three dipping sauces—Creamy Chipotle, Nacho Cheese Sauce, or reduced-fat sour cream—and Steak & Queso Crunchwrap Sliders, which come with the chain’s new Green Chile Queso for dipping.

Sister chain Pizza Hut has also jumped on the dipping trend with its recent reintroduction of its popular Cheesy Bites pizza, which features tear-off pockets of cheese around the rim of the crust, and a Ranch Lover’s Flight of three ranch dressing-based dipping sauces.

Spicy and cheesy sauces are hot

AFP’s sauces can be customized to enable operators to differentiate themselves with one-of-a-kind menu items that align with today’s consumer preferences. From cheesy to spicy, these unique flavor profiles can drive traffic, boost word-of-mouth marketing, and keep guests coming back.

Sixty percent of consumers aged 18-34 prefer a mild-extreme spice level, according to the Technomic Flavor Consumer Trend Report, 2023. The same report also found that 60% of consumers often crave cheesy foods.

Below are some of the creative recipes AFP is suggesting to bring these trends to life:

• Korean Street Fire Chicken Taquitos, which feature Muy Fresco® Monterrey Jack Cheese Sauce as a base for a Bold & Smokey Queso—“but that’s just one way to do it,” says Chef Gable. The street-food-style dish capitalizes on the snacking trend, he says.
• Kung Pao Chicken Enchiladas served with a Muy Fresco® Extra Spicy Cheese Sauce.

“Creating the perfect cheese sauce to complement nontraditional flavors, like Asian fusion, is just a taste of what’s possible,” says Chef Gable.

Sauces enhance chicken dishes

Chicken dishes—wings, tenders, nuggets, and more—have long gone hand-in-hand with dipping sauces. Operators can make them stand out, however, with unique sauces that consumers will want to try. It’s also worth noting that operators can charge 26% more for chicken dishes with cheese sauce, according to Technomic Ignite menu data.

Operators can create their own fast-scratch cheese sauce as a topping for a fried chicken dish, such as this recipe for Loaded Nashville Hot Nuggets. The dish features Muy Fresco® Monterrey Jack Cheese as a base for making a Nashville Cheese Sauce, which also includes chili powder, cayenne pepper, and other ingredients to give it a flavorful bite.

This recipe for Slammin’ White Alabama BBQ Chicken features Muy Fresco® White Alabama BBQ Sauce, which delivers a vinegar-based BBQ flavor with tangy peppery notes and hits on the regional BBQ trend seen across menus.

Tacos, chalupas and more

Operators can participate in the excitement around dipping tacos with dishes such as this recipe for Taco Nacho Dippers, which include a side of Muy Fresco® Nacho Cheese Sauce for dipping.

Other recipe ideas include:

• Pulled Chicken Tot-Chos using Muy Fresco® Cheddar Cheese Sauce and Muy Fresco® Guacamole-Style Dip
• Buffalo Cauliflower Chalupas using Muy Fresco® Plant-Based Nacho Cheese Sauce and Muy Fresco® Nacho Cheese Sauce
• Chorizo & Avocado Bites using Muy Fresco® Queso Blanco Cheese Sauce
• Cheesesteak Fries using Muy Fresco® Aged Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Dipping sauces enable operators to easily differentiate their menu with unique flavors, and to cross-utilize ingredients in ways that will surprise and delight their customers. AFP’s ready-to-use, shelf-stable sauces make it easy for operators to incorporate them into their back-of-house operations. They can be a stand-alone, profit-driving addition to menu items or a blank canvas that operators can customize to suit their needs.

For more recipe inspiration and culinary tips, visit our Business Solutions Page.

Source - Restaurant Hospitality, https://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/