AUSTIN, MINN. — Hormel Foods Corp. recently announced that it would introduce its Ribbon Pepperoni product, which will debut at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.

The company said the pizza innovation comes from Windsor, Ontario, where shredded pepperoni is a staple. Hormel explained that the Ribbon Pepperoni could allow American foodservice operators to prepare pizza more quickly.

“We are always looking for ways to create solutions for our operators, and we believe Hormel Ribbon Pepperoni does just that,” said Colby Strilaeff, Hormel Foodservice brand manager. “It’s a unique product unlike anything else in the market, and we are very excited to showcase it at the International Pizza Expo. We think it’ll be the talk of the show.”

The Hormel Foodservice team said two main issues were identified as operator pain points when assessing pizza, especially pepperoni. The first was that round slices of pepperoni take a long time to portion evenly on a pizza pie, and the second was that round slices aren’t always the best format of pepperoni for non-pizza applications, including pastas and salads. 

“We asked ourselves, what if pepperoni could be handled and applied like shredded mozzarella cheese?” said Blake Flores, innovation team lead for Hormel Foodservice. “We tested pepperoni spirals, we tested different thicknesses of pepperoni, but in the end, ribbons emerged as the solution that best addressed these operator pain points, and we’re already seeing the results. The response to this product from our foodservice customers has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Samples will be available for International Pizza Expo attendees at the Hormel booth March 19-21.