Magazine: What is in our hands? I.

Hungary’s catering and hospitality sector has been getting to know finger food for 15 years to Csaba Mossóczy, country manager with McCain Foods, one of Europe’s biggest finger food producers, it is almost impossible to give a precise definition because so many types of products classify as finger food. The manager told us that finger food belongs to the convenience category and he estimates its annual turnover to be around 200-300 tons in Hungary’s food service market. His company’s partners are primarily in the Horeca sector, fast food chains and hotels – in other segments the category is developing less dynamically. Frozen food is used more and more frequently in the catering and hospitality sector and thanks to the development of processing technologies their ingredients are getting better. János Volosinovszky, managing director of Nádudvari Food Kft. is of the opinion that Hungary’s finger food market is expanding – his company’s sales are improving, too. The managing director added that finger food fits into the current consumption trends really well: it can be prepared quickly and it offers great variety. City-living consumers between the ages of 20 and 49 with a higher income, who tend to be intellectuals, health conscious and women are the main target group of these products. Dr Zoltán Böszörményi, commercial director of Marathon Foods Kft. also talked about slow but steady market growth in the last 3-4 years. His experience is that typically young and middle-aged consumers buy the category. The director thinks that the Hungarian market is saturated but creative ideas and new flavours or packaging units can generate sales growth. Marathon Foods also has many partners abroad, who are always open to new ideas. McCain offers one of the widest ranges of finger food products in Hungary, potato, cheese, vegetable and chicken based product groups can all be found in their portfolio. Onion rings, broccoli- and chilli-cheese nuggets and spicy chicken wings are their most popular products. Nádudvari Food produces breaded vegetable and cheese, in both 450g and 2.5kg sizes. Products are made using technology that keeps the vegetables as fresh as possible and the crispy breadcrumb coating gives products a home-made character. No wonder that this year the company’s vegetable products were honoured with the Hungarian Product Grand Prize. One of Marathon Foods’ flagship products is spring rolls, which they make in different versions (vegetable, Mexican, chicken, duck, pork, fruits of the sea). They also make sweet/salty pastries such as Mini Hot Dog, Mini Wellington and D-shape. Products are usually sold to frozen food wholesalers that sell it to restaurants and diners, but they can also be found in the stores of retail chains.