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Who: General Mills

What: Old El Paso Stand ‘N’ Stuff Soft Taco Kit

Where: Ambient sauces/world foods

When: Launched May 2014

How much: £3.79/329g

Why: Britain’s Mexican food market has been hotting up of late, with Discovery Foods relaunching in April as Santa Maria, and rival General Mills launching the Stand ‘N’ Stuff range of flat-bottomed tacos as it looks to encourage Brits to eat more Mexican food mid-week rather than reserve it for a weekend treat. Backing the range with a £2.5m marketing push from next month, General Mills is aiming for £5m in first-year sales.

Consumer verdict: Nine out of 10 testers said they would notice this on shelf thanks to its bold branding. And despite concerns over the additional ingredients required pushing up the cost, the kit attracted a high level of pre-trial interest. The Extra Mild, Super Tasty variant was tested, and some felt it lacked heat and that more spices wouldn’t go amiss. Overall, however, ratings across many key measures were high, resulting in a good overall score. More than one in four testers said they would purchase it at least fortnightly.

Pre-trial purchase: 62%

Post-trial purchase: 68%

Better than what’s out there: 53%

New and different: 62%

Overall score: 44/50

What is Fast Foodfax?

It is a subscriber service that has been running for more than 30 years, offering consumer assessments of new products and allowing comparisons with more than 17,000 products from our database. It is objective, impartial and totally independent, and each product is assessed using original consumer feedback from respondents across the UK. See here for further information.

Fast Foodfax is prepared by Cambridge Market Research , which works closely with The Grocer magazine on a variety of projects including the consumer judging element of the The Grocer’s Own-label Food & Drink Awards and New Product Awards. 

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