ORLANDO - Pearson Foods Corp. hopes to shake up consumer prejudices about grocery store ramen with its new product.

At IDDBA ’19,  Pearson unveiled its line of Fresh Ramen grab ‘n go bowls filled with nutritious, fresh-cut vegetables and fresh ramen noodles with a variety of seasonings. The refrigerated product will begin shipping to retail in September, says Chris Silliven, Pearson’s director of business development.

This is not, Silliven says, your typical high-sodium, dehydrated-noodle ramen product. Retailing for a suggested $3.99-4.99, the product ships in a 4-pack case and comes in five flavors: chicken, miso, sesame, pork and ginger.

The Fresh Ramen line comes in packaging as unique as its contents.

“To literally show consumers how much better Fresh Ramen is than center-of-store brands, we needed a different kind of packaging than the usual paperboard and opaque foam,” says Ruta Pearson, Pearson’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We wanted a stylish, crystal-clear ramen bowl to showcase our fresh ingredients and give customers confidence in the quality and freshness. At the same time, the bowl had to be microwaveable, heat resistant for fast and easy preparation, and recyclable. Overall, the packaging and design had to be eye-catching, unique and provide a variety of merchandizing options for our retail produce and deli customers.”

To meet those needs, Pearson partnered with Display Pack, a leading food packaging manufacturer, to design the custom ramen bowl and to recommend the material to be used.

Display Pack identified long-time partner Milliken & Company and its NX UltraClear polypropylene (PP) for the development of the bowl. It’s engineered to handle hot-fill applications and microwaving, which gives consumers the choice of adding very hot water to the ingredients or combining them with room-temperature water and then heating the mixture in the microwave. The versatile Milliken material is also well suited for low-temperature use, which is important because Fresh Ramen products are kept refrigerated.