Mizkan America has launched a new range of ‘Rustic Cut’ pasta sauces as part of its Bertolli brand.
There are four variants in all, each inspired by simple Tuscan cooking and featuring roughly chopped vegetable pieces including peppers, onions and carrots. They are marinara with traditional vegetables, spicy marinara with traditional vegetables, roasted garlic marinara with garden vegetables, and sweet pepper with portobello mushrooms.
Mizkan has enlisted Sean and Catherine Lowe from the TV series The Bachelor to champion the new range.
“Just like the Bertolli brand, I pride myself on my strong Italian roots,” Catherine Lowe said. “My dad taught me how to cook at a young age and growing up, it was an event to make and enjoy dinner with his side of the family. During Italian Heritage Month, it’s important for me to remember and celebrate that heritage. I’m so excited to pass it on to my one-year-old Samuel as he grows up!”
Mizkan has enlisted The Bachelor’s Sean and Catherine Lowe to champion the range.
And Rebecca Smith, senior brand manager for Mizkan America, said: “At the Bertolli brand, we continue to take inspiration and pride from the Tuscan way of cooking as well as the rich Tuscan heritage passed down by our founder, Francesco Bertolli. That’s why Bertolli Rustic Cut pasta sauces contain no artificial colours, no artificial flavours and no added sugar, giving consumers amazing flavours and texture inspired by the authentic tastes of Tuscany.
“By using a few quality ingredients, cooked lightly with olive oil to lock in layers of flavour, we craft delicious sauces that preserve the integrity of the ingredients in each and every jar.”
Globally, Bertolli is a fragmented brand. Founded in the mid-1860s, it was once owned entirely by Unilever, which in recent years has set about splitting off parts of the business as various product categories become less focal.
In 2008, it sold its olive oil business to Spain’s Grupo Deoleo; in 2012, the frozen food side, including the brand Bertolli, was sold to Conagra; and in 2014, it agreed to sell its North American pasta sauce business to Mizkan.
That could soon be followed by a sale of Unilever’s spreads business, which was put up for sale earlier in the year as part of a major corporate review.
The four new sauces, packed in 23oz jars, will be available from grocers and retail chains US-wide from this autumn, with a suggested retail price of $3.99.
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