Exploring Innovation in Foodservice for Healthcare

The Hormel Foods Foodservice team has been a leader in health care foodservice for years, and that leadership was on display at the national Association for Healthcare Foodservice (AHF) conference held in Minneapolis in late August.

“Attending the AHF conference allows us to engage with our current and prospective customers, show them our new innovative items, learn about their business and pain points and become a trusted resource for them,” said Greg Hetfield, national sales manager, Foodservice. “We are just scratching the surface in health care right now. There is still a lot of runway ahead of us in this industry and we are in a great position to grow and succeed.”

A team from the Foodservice group was at the conference to attend as well as participate in panel discussions, and Tony Finnestad, Foodservice business development chef, was part of an innovation cooking demo using Hormel Foods products.

“Health care foodservice is a very important segment for our team because food has become a huge part of how they can satisfy patients, staff and visitors during their time at the facility,” said Annemarie Vaupel, director of marketing, Foodservice and current industry advisory board chair for the AHF. “Hospitals are serving three meals a day seven days a week to everyone there, not just patients. Some hospitals can sell up to 10 times more food than a standalone restaurant in a single day.”

“For many years, hospitals had the reputation for making bad food,” Finnestad said. “They really want to serve good food that is on-trend, and our value-added products are perfect solutions for them. The health care foodservice operators and business managers are inspired by our innovation and count on us to make good food for their needs.”

During an innovation panel discussion about global food trends, Finnestad used Hormel Foods products to make Moroccan spaghetti, marinated farro salad and a sesame ginger fried rice burrito. “It was really to show the attendees how our products can save them time and labor, while also demonstrating just how on-trend and delicious hospital food can be.”