Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill., rolls out Philadelphia Ready-To-Eat Cheesecake Filling. Sold in the cream cheese section of retailers’ refrigerated dairy cases, each 24.2-oz tub contains enough filling to accommodate a 9-inch graham cracker pie crust.

Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill., rolls out Philadelphia Ready-To-Eat Cheesecake Filling. Sold in the cream cheese section of retailers’ refrigerated dairy cases, each 24.2-oz tub contains enough filling to accommodate a 9-inch graham cracker pie crust. Of course, the filling can also be used as a topping for graham crackers, cookies and even bagels. The regional rollout is supported with FSIs that include a 75 cents off purchase coupon.

Orrville, Ohio-based Smith Dairy Products Co., expands its award-winning Moovers Eggnog packaging design to its two new Ruggles Holiday Edition Premium Ice Cream varieties: Sugar Cookie and Hot Chocolate. “We’ve had such success with our eggnog packaging that we’re using the same images and style on our holiday ice cream packaging to get the same effect in the freezer case as we get in the dairy case,” says Penny Baker, director of marketing.

Until 1999, Smith Dairy sold its eggnog in a plain paper carton that reinforced consumers’ opinions of eggnog as an old-fashioned, unexciting and somewhat stodgy, holiday tradition. When the company made over the package using plastic bottles wrapped with colorful, friendly caricatures of Santa and Mrs. Claus, its eggnog sales skyrocketed. “The packaging and the product won several industry awards,” says Baker. “It also had a huge impact on consumers, who not only bought much more of our eggnog but also started using the empty bottles as holiday craft items. In fact, the bottles have become collectibles for many of our consumers.

“The eggnog package makeover proved that consumers respond to seasonal package designs that encourage impulse sales,” she says. “It’s hard to resist Santa and Mrs. Claus when they’re looking at you from the shelf, so we’re putting their powerful personalities to work on ice cream packaging, too.” The 1.75-quart containers of new Sugar Cookie, with sugar cookie pieces and multicolored sprinkles in a vanilla ice cream base, and new Hot Chocolate, with marshmallows and chocolate chips in a chocolate ice cream base, sport the same images of Santa and Mrs. Claus from Smith Dairy’s eggnog packaging. The company is supporting the rollout with window banners, statics, aisle interrupters, promotional pricing and FSIs, as well as offering a “Santa’s Little Holsteins” t-shirt purchase promotion.

Snack time can draw a battle line between what children really want to eat and what moms know are smart snack choices. Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., the makers of PediaSure, is helping make the choice easier with new NutriPals Balanced Nutrition Bars and Drinks, a line of convenient snacks created specifically for children’s discerning palates.

NutriPals Drinks contain 22 essential vitamins and minerals and 44% less sugar per ounce than the leading kids’ yogurt drinks. These shelf-stable drinks based on milk protein concentrate are also lactose-free, gluten-free and kosher. They come in three flavors: Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla. Suggested retail price is $5.49 for a 4-count box of 8-oz reclosable plastic bottles.

The term “aged to perfection” may nicely encapsulate what is happening in a small cheese plant in east-central Wisconsin. After more than half a century in operation, Kiel Cheese LLC., is finally introducing a nationally distributed product-Kiel Select Classic Wisconsin Cheddar cheese. The cheese is produced in small batches, naturally aged and hand-selected, ensuring every package upholds the plant’s exacting standards for flavor and quality. It comes in two varieties-sharp and extra sharp. Both flavors are available in 10-oz and 32-oz chunks, with a suggested retail price of $2.99 and $5.98, respectively.

The artisans at the Kiel cheese facility adhere to a philosophy of taking their time, a belief that permeates virtually everything done at the plant. The results speak for themselves. Kiel Select Cheddar has a rich, complex Cheddar flavor. Only clean dairy notes are present, with no impurities or aftertaste. The cheese’s texture is smooth and tightly knit, making it easy to cut and prepare. It’s never waxy or crumbly.

The plant where Kiel Select Cheddar cheese is produced is among the most honored cheese plants in the world. It has been a consistent award winner since it opened in 1949. In fact, Cheddar from the Kiel plant has taken first place in the Cheddar class for the past five biennial U.S. Cheese Championships, most recently in 2005. The plant took the top prizes for the Cheddar and aged Cheddar categories at the 2006 World Dairy Expo Cheese and Butter Contest. In addition, the plant’s Cheddar entries took three of the top-four places (first, third and fourth) in the Cheddar cheese category of the 2006 Wisconsin State Fair Governor’s Sweepstakes Cheese & Butter Contest.