Nutritious and Delicious Innovation: The Journey of ZENB's Plant-Powered Creations

Ever wonder how we come up with all the delicious, plant-fueled products at ZENB? Why we choose some flavors over another? How our products have such amazing textures? Well, it’s no easy feat! It involves expert team members and a lot of tastings, all led by our amazing innovators, like Cata! We asked her to share a peak behind the curtain of how we bring products to life that help people eat like it matters.

Hi! I’m Cata, Product Manager at ZENB. Developing products at ZENB always starts with the people who eat our food. We invest time in understanding their habits, preferences, and what truly excites them. As a product manager, I’m involved from the initial spark of an idea right through to when it hits the shelves. I collaborate with all our ZENB teams to ensure that every element of our product, from its flavor to its appearance, aligns with our goals and meets our customers' needs.

To help you understand the process we take to bring a product to market, I’d like to tell you about one of my favorite recent launches, ZENB Pasta Sides. With this product, we wanted to deliver something that would help people make lunch and dinner more delicious, convenient, and plant-fueled. Did you know that 77% of dinners take less than 30 minutes to make? We aimed to transform one of the most routine parts of the meal — the side dish — into something that was better-for-you while still being easy to prepare and ready in just a few minutes. I partnered with our R&D experts to experiment with numerous recipes, conducting numerous taste tests with our team across our weekly Friday sessions. We tweaked our recipes and settled on four varieties that work great with a variety of main dishes. We continued to perfect these until we achieved the ideal balance of al dente texture and rich, saucy flavor. Our final step involved testing with focus groups to ensure everything was just right before launching them into the world.  The final product was something that we think is truly innovative, providing new ways of enjoying delicious side dishes with a more nutritious mindset that doesn’t sacrifice taste. You can now find ZENB Pasta Sides at ZENB.com and retailers near you.

I hope you enjoy our Pasta Sides as much as we enjoyed creating them! Keep an eye out for more plant-fueled products coming soon. I can’t wait to share them with you!