AFFI HEATS NUTRITION PUSH WITH 5 A DAY CONTEST

BARBARA McDONALD

McLEAN, Va. -- The fourth annual 5 a Day National Retail Contest, sponsored by the American Frozen Food Institute here, will focus on recent findings that frozen fruits and vegetables often have as much nutritional value as fresh produce.

The contest kicked off last month and runs until April 1.

Steven C. Anderson, AFFI president, said this year's contest -- which carries $10,000 in prize money -- provides manufacturers, brokers and retail operators an opportunity "to capitalize on the historic level of publicity which the nutritional value of frozen fruits and vegetables is receiving."

The AFFI supplies colorful 3.5-by-7-inch shelf talkers and decals exhorting customers to "EAT FROZEN Fruits and Vegetables, 5 a Day the COOL Way!" "Five a Day -- For Better Health," they add.

"The Food and Drug Administration's approval this year of AFFI's petition to allow frozen produce to be labeled as 'healthy' continues to generate intense media interest. It also presents a natural tie-in with the 5 a Day message," said Anderson, who is also the AFFI's chief executive officer.

The 144-unit Harris Teeter chain, Charlotte, N.C., will do a 5 a Day program, according to Sonya Elam, spokeswoman, which will involve a flier and the AFFI's 5 a Day point-of-sale material, with a focus on frozen fruit and vegetables, she said. Harris Teeter participated in the AFFI 5 a Day program last year, too, she said.

Also among those expressing early interest is Roy Flaherty, vice president of sales, retail brands, for Norpac Food Sales, an arm of Norpac Foods, a growers' cooperative in Lake Oswego, Ore. The cooperative deals with 24 brokers who work in 13 Western states and several states in the Midwest, encompassing a good number of supermarket chains and independents. Norpac has not participated before, Flaherty said.

"We will put it out as a bulletin to our brokers, and suggest they use the March frozen-food buy time as a time frame to enter this contest with one or more customers," Flaherty said. He will also make entering the 5 a Day contest a consideration for Norpac's evaluation for its Broker of the Year award for 1999.

The 5 a Day National Retail Contest rewards brokers and retail operators for outstanding promotions in retail frozen-food aisles using the 5 a Day theme. The National Cancer Institute's recommendation to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day to help prevent cancer and other chronic diseases is the basis for the theme.

Past promotions have included a combination of creative in-store displays and demonstrations, advertising, public service announcements, and other tactics designed to raise awareness of the 5 a Day message and draw consumers' attention to the frozen-food aisles, the AFFI said in a statement.

The AFFI will award a total of $10,000 in prize money. There will be four winners of $2,500 each -- for best individual store effort, broker/representative assisting the best individual store effort, best chainwide effort, and broker/rep assisting the best chainwide effort. In case company policy forbids the receipt of prize money, awards will be donated to the charity of the company's choice. All entries must be received by May 21.

"Favorable publicity about the nutritional value of frozen food is a major reason for us to do this. The produce department has done very, very well with 5 a Day, and I think frozen should do as well," said Flaherty.

Downsizing, efficiency considerations and the need for heavy use of night crews have combined to make retailers in New England less willing to participate in promotions such as 5 a Day the Cool Way, or even March Frozen Food Month. "They just don't have the bodies; the bodies are being used elsewhere," said Howard Lombardi, executive director of the Frozen Food Association of New England, Arlington, Mass.

Frozen-food promoters are fighting a perception that frozen foods are less nutritious than fresh, which is not true. Some consumers themselves report that they are too busy to prepare fresh vegetables, thinking they are better than frozen, so they don't eat many vegetables at all.

"Frozen fruits and vegetables are picked and processed in the same day. Fresh produce is four or five days old by the time the consumer takes it home. I think our industry has not done a good enough job educating the consumer," said Lombardi of the FFANE.

With the goal of educating the consumer, the New England regional association is planning a Web site that would be advertised in the Boston area after the first of the year. It plans to develop a database of hardcore frozen-food users, who will receive packets on frozen food, said Lombardi.