Roast pork with crackling — a winner for convenience

The Australian Food Awards have recognised a Riverina-based producer for its ready-to-eat roast pork complete with crunchy crackle, awarding it the Gold Medal in Convenience Main Meals category, Best Convenience Main Meal and the Champion Australian Convenience Food trophy.

Riverview Farms Pork Roast with Crackle was also a finalist for Australian Product of the Year. The product is sold cooked, hot and ready to eat, much like the hot chickens favoured by many consumers every week.

Left to right: Ian Prunell, Mark McKenzie and Ashley Hoffmann from Rivalea. Image credit: Riverview Farms.

Busy lifestyles, evolving consumer tastes and hesitation over how to cook the perfect pork roast are thought to be some of the reasons behind the ubiquity of convenient options like this.

“Consumers are making more frequent, smaller trips to the supermarket each week and ready-made meals and precooked products are high on the shopping list. Hot convenience foods offer consumers inspiration for ‘what will be for my dinner tonight’ or ‘my lunch right now’,” said Ashley Hoffmann, Riverview Farms Brand Manager.

Choosing to innovate to meet the needs of the modern consumer has helped Riverview Farms secure a leadership position for pork in the ‘grab and go’ meals category. Riverview Farms’ success underscores consumer interest in products which reduce the complexity and time required to prepare their favourite meals.

“Our research overwhelmingly shows that consumers choose roast pork because of the crackle but a lot of us are too busy to prepare a roast on a regular basis. Our pork roast with crackle is prepared and cooked instore the traditional way, so consumers can now buy a pork roast they love and have it any day of the week,” said Hoffman.

Riverview Farms is part of the Rivalea brand family, which owns and manages the production cycle of its products, from raising pigs to processing to distribution.