Independent operators are US Foods’ bread and butter, and to find out what they want, the foodservice distributor went right to the source.
“We conducted a study to understand what quality means to operators in terms of food products,” said Stacey Kinkaid, vice president of product development and innovation for the Rosemont, Illinois-based broadliner. “Consistency was definitely the top attribute that mattered to them. They want to see that the product is always the same, the same performance every time, the same flavor every time.”
Toward that end, US Foods released 19 exclusive products last month collected in its Spring 2026 Scoop. [Another Scoop is issued every Fall.] The trend-forward products are created by the company’s chefs and developers to maximize consistency and menu versatility, save time and labor and boost profits.
As the country’s second-largest foodservice distributor behind Sysco, this focus on chef-driven, innovative products is a differentiator—even more important after No.1 Sysco’s announcement earlier this week to purchase Jetro Restaurant Depot. About 725,000 independent restaurants regularly patronize the cash-and-carry Restaurant Depot for staples, such as paper goods, cooking oil, jumbo bags of onions and sheet pans.
But they probably won’t find products like Dill Pickle Cream Cheese Bombs, a ready-to-serve Dubai-Style Chocolate Torte or Crispy Carrot Fries—all featured in this season’s Scoop.
Dill Pickle Cream Cheese Bombs, a shareable starter.
Along with consistency, transparency was cited as a component of quality, said Kinkaid, and the carrot fries are a good example. The lightly battered French-sourced carrots require no prep and offer a few simple ingredients not found on the US Foods “Unpronounceables List.” Operators are looking for creative alternatives to French fries, US Foods found.
“One of the most innovative products in this launch is the Monarch CrispGuard Garlic Parmesan Ranch Coating,” Kinkaid believes. “It's a really interesting product because it can serve a few different purposes for operators. It's a flavor delivery coating so it's got Parmesan garlic ranch flavor in it, but it also has an added benefit because its blend of oils keeps fried food crispy longer than with a traditional sauce.”
The US Foods team tossed the refrigerated, liquid sauce with several types of cooked, fried food and tested it with third-party delivery vs. traditional sauces. “It kept fried food crispy up to 45 minutes longer,” said Kinkaid. “We decided to go with a more mainstream [ranch] flavor because it’s the functionality of the product is that’s the innovative portion.”
The Dubai-Style Chocolate Torte was one of the more challenging products to develop, she added. The timing of the launch was also key. Even though Dubai chocolate has been trending on TikTok for a while, it may be fairly new to independent restaurants and their guests in some parts of the country.
“We are launching products nationally, so while a trend may have peaked in New York or LA, it may still be unknown or just starting to emerge in smaller cities,” said Kinkaid. “The right timing is really important for the longevity of a product.”
Another hurdle: Dubai chocolate bars are on the expensive side, and it was challenging to commercialize the dessert at a price point that would be profitable for operators in both upscale and more casual restaurants.
“We had to target a price that was in line with our other cakes and desserts, even though it has a lot of premium ingredients like chocolate, pistachio butter and crushed pistachios,” said Kinkaid. “That took quite a bit of work, to deliver the quality that we want at a price point that we knew would be attractive and profitable. Desserts are a key area of profit for our customers.”
The Dubai-Style Chocolate Torte that resulted is layered with a chocolate graham crust, chocolate ganache and a crunchy pistachio-and-kataifi center. The slices are pre-portioned for easy, cost-effective service and zero waste, and the product delivers the signature salty-sweet-crunchy combo diners are seeking. According to US Foods, each case represents 120 minutes of labor savings compared to preparing the torte from scratch, and the dessert photographs well, creating impactful marketing moments on social platforms.
This fall will be 15 years since US Foods launched the first Scoop. Along with the company’s in-house chefs and product developers, Kinkaid and her team tap their Food Fanatics chefs positioned around the U.S to pinpoint trends that have legs. Other trends that emerged in Spring Scoop products include crunchy Korean-style chicken wings, a mojo flavor profile infused with garlic, orange, lime and Caribbean seasonings, and pickles, in the aforementioned shareable Dill Pickle Cream Cheese Bombs.
“The products that we introduce through Scoop are all our own brands and exclusive to US Foods, so they’re going to offer value, quality and consistency and be lower cost than competitive offerings from manufacturers,” said Kinkaid. “We have a high success rate and over 75% of the products that we've launched through Scoop are still being sold today.”
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