Meat+Poultry - January 2019 - 20

COVER STORY

or what makes sense in our system?" This
could result in manufacturing products suited
for meal kits, she says.
The Naked Truth line competes with
other fully cooked chicken breasts already
on the market, so it had to have some valid
attributes that made it stand out. Comparable
products don't look as natural, Wilbourn says.
For starters, the competitions' products don't
pass the eye test. "They just look processed,"
she says, and none of them can make all the
production claims, use sous vide cooking or
feature a label that is as clean. "No piece of
Naked Truth sous vide happened by accident,"
Wilbourn says. "It's all been thought through;
it's all been strategic and articulated the way it
is by design."
The goal of reinventing a foodservice
quality and making it available to consumers to
easily prepare at home was achieved thanks to
the collaboration of Wayne Farms' R&D team,
its culinary expert with plenty of input from
operations experts.
"The attention to detail, from the beginning
all the way to your plate, on your fork and
in your mouth has been insane," says Jana
Brackett, marketing analyst at Wayne Farms.
At Wayne Farms' new
Customer Innovation
Center, a mock retail case
showcases the Naked
Truth packaging that
highlights the premium
attributes of the product.

MEAT+ POULTRY | 01.19 | www.meatpoultry.com

RETAIL APPEAL
Making the leap from foodservice to retail
presented some challenges, according to most
of the Wayne Farms team working on the
development and launch of Naked Truth.
The product is designed to be served cold or
hot, whole or sliced, according to Frank Jock,
Wayne Farms' corporate chef. "I can grill it, I
can microwave it, I can pan-sear it, I can drop it
in water and it will turn out the same," he says.
When it comes to culinary applications,
"The bullseye is so big on it," says the chef,
who routinely serves up examples of the
products' versatility for current and potential
customers at the company's new innovation
center, where a commercial test kitchen, pilot
plant and meeting areas promote innovation
and collaboration.
"The Naked Truth brand is built around
telling a story, so our customers don't have
to," says Megan Ernst, senior brand manager.
She adds that telling that type of story is less
challenging in the retail environment, where
shoppers are typically receptive to learning
more about the food they're buying. Ernst

C.Shamwell AVO

20

Truth is the latest example of that. Vertical
integration is a significant advantage to the
company, allowing it to produce the feed,
operate the hatcheries and work directly with
the family farms raising the chickens.
Whether it is the premium, Naked Truth
product or the NAE chicken breasts, the shape
of the sous vide cooked product is the same.
Weights depend on the customer, usually either
4 oz., 5 oz. or 6 oz. Wayne Farms portions its
chicken breasts to be uniform, trimming them
using JBT's DSI, water-cutting technology to
create a teardrop-shaped final product. Some
of the Naked Truth product trimmings are
sold to quick-serve customers, and Wayne
Farms product developers are experimenting
with other options, including diced products.
It's all about trying to figure out the best use
for the leftover products after the teardropshaped chicken breast is removed, says Sarah
Wilbourn, foodservice distribution sales
manager. She says product developers are
always on the lookout for new opportunities
and asking, "Are there applications for the trim
part in sous vide? What can we do from there?
For example, can we do medallions or chunks
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Meat+Poultry - January 2019

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