The fast-growing $7.4bn out-of-home breakfast category has a new product entrant, with the launch of a ready-made French toast from Australian egg farmer and processor Sunny Queen.
The French toast product – which the company says is the first of its kind in the Australian market – expands the Sunny Queen Meal Solutions’ current omelette, fritter and poached egg range, and brings a new offering to cafe owners and chefs across the food service sector.
Sunny Queen's chef Katrina Neill and national marketing manager Isabelle Dench joined the Food & Drink Business team in the Yaffa Media kitchen to demonstrate the convenience of the product and conduct a taste test.
“Our research shows the on-the-go breakfast market is growing by four per cent, with people always in such a rush in the morning on the way to work or school. This has created a gap in the market for a nutritious and tasty meal option,” Dench told the team.
“French toast is a popular menu item and a meal that evokes nostalgia among consumers, so we wanted to create a product that would allow chefs a lot of versatility. Our French toast can be served as a sweet or savoury offering.”
The slices of French toast are processed using real eggs and individually snap frozen at Sunny Queens' Brisbane factory, and then bulk packaged. The slices can be reheated by sandwich press, toaster, oven, impinger or fryer without needing to be defrosted.
Dench says the secret to good French toast is to ensure the quantity of egg used is "just right" and the bread is soaked for for the optimum period of time. To this end, Sunny Queen invested in new technology for the bread dipping process to guarantee "the consistency and high quality of the product".
Sunny Queen's real egg French toast has a nine-month shelf life in the freezer and uses the equivalent around half a large egg in each slice.
The product will be available nationally to cafes, restaurants, aged care facilities, hotels and other hospitality providers.
