CAG ConAgra Brands Inc

Foodservice Winner Honored For Collaborative Cross-Company Approach to Developing New Product that Gets Top Marks on Taste & Nutrition; Gives School Kids Full Serving of Whole Grain from 'Ultragrain' Prepared Foods magazine is honoring ConAgra Foods with its 2005 "Spirit of Innovation" award in the Foodservice Category for its new line of whole-grain The Max pizzas, which offer school lunch programs nutritious meal options that also score high on taste. From a product perspective, the honor carries double significance, also recognizing ConAgra Foods' innovative, all-natural Ultragrain(R) whole-wheat flour, which delivers a full serving of whole grains in each slice of The Max pizza.(i) The magazine's "Spirit of Innovation" awards--given in the foodservice and retail categories--honor both the new product and winning product-development teams. Prepared Foods and the award's other sponsor, Ventura Foods, emphasized that they "are fiercely committed to the ideal that innovation is one part inspirational teamwork, one part ideas." The ConAgra Foodservice The Max pizza team accepted the award late on Oct. 17 at Prepared Foods' 2005 New Products Conference. The team also will be featured in an article in the magazine's October issue. The 2005 award, which covers products introduced in 2004/2005, specifically considers how new products answer consumers' needs. With the new Dietary Guidelines urging greater consumption of whole grains, The Max pizza answers the needs of parents, children and schools for improved school meals in decisive fashion. To achieve this, the whole-grain The Max pizza takes advantage of the unique strengths of Ultragrain--a proprietary white whole-wheat flour created by ConAgra Food Ingredients with a taste and texture similar to refined white flour products(ii) -- to deliver a new school lunch option with the great taste school kids love(iii) and whole-grain nutrition that parents and school lunch leaders know they need. As a result, more than 2,600 school districts have added the great-tasting, nutritious school lunch entree to their menus for this new school year.(iv) "This honor from Prepared Foods reinforces the very positive response we've received for The Max whole-grain pizzas from school foodservice leaders--and from kids," said Chris Meinerding, director, Marketing, ConAgra Foodservice. "With U.S. schools serving 28 million meals to K-12 students every day, the team that developed these pizzas recognized everyone would win if we could introduce a whole-grain product that also scored high with kids on taste. By adding Ultragrain to The Max pizza, we delivered a product that students rave about." "As the first whole-grain flour combining preferred taste and texture with nutrition, we thought Ultragrain might be well-suited for the needs of school nutrition programs," said Don Brown, vice president, Business Development, ConAgra Mills. "Our research and the real world bore that out. In The Max pizza, Ultragrain was the perfect match, giving school lunch leaders a nutritious product kids love to eat. It delivered the best of both worlds." In discussing development of The Max pizza, ConAgra Foods described how its new product team collaborated across its ConAgra Foodservice and ConAgra Food Ingredients segments, and its Nutrition Center of Excellence. "A key to success," said Susan Waltman, vice president, Nutrition Center of Excellence, ConAgra Foods, "was our ability to integrate consumer insights, product design and nutrition science across company lines and in a real world setting. We commissioned a study with University of Minnesota that found school kids consumed popular foods with Ultragrain as much as foods with traditional white flour.(v) With that evidence, we were able to move forward with strong support from customers for a new school lunch product that meets a clear nutritional need." About ConAgra Foodservice A segment of ConAgra Foods, Inc., ConAgra Foodservice and its three business areas--Culinary Products, Seafood Products and Specialty Potato Products--deliver signature services and programs to reenergize operators' menus and build their business, including its new MenuSuccess approach to bundled menu solutions, and a portfolio of branded school foodservice products--including The Max pizza, El eXtremo burritos, Chef Boyardee, Manwich, Peter Pan, Lamb Weston and Hunt's Snack Pack puddings and tomato products For more information, visit www.conagrafoodservice.com. About ConAgra Food Ingredients ConAgra Food Ingredients, with its three brands--ConAgra Mills(TM), Spicetec(TM) & Gilroy Foods(TM) --is a leading source for food ingredients and services, supplying a portfolio of ingredients such as vegetables, garlic and onions, capsicums, natural spices, seasonings, flavors, wheat flours, oat products and services to the food industry including distribution, risk management and global-ingredient sourcing. For more information, please visit www.conagrafoodingredients.com. The Ultragrain(R), El eXtremo(TM),Chef Boyardee(R), Manwich(R), Peter Pan(R), Hunt's(R) and Hunt's Snack Pack(R) brands are registered trademarks of ConAgra Brands Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of ConAgra Foods Inc. About ConAgra Foods ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) is one of North America's largest packaged food companies, serving consumer retailers, restaurants and other foodservice establishments, with popular brands including: Armour, Angela Mia, Butterball, ConAgra Mills, Egg Beaters, El eXtremo, Fernando's, Gilroy Foods, Gulden's, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt's, La Choy, Lamb Weston, Orville Redenbacher's, Reddi-wip, Singleton, Slim Jim, Spicetec, Swiss Miss, The Max, Ultragrain and others. For more information, visit www.conagrafoods.com. (i) ConAgra School Foodservice, product data, July 2005 (ii) ConAgra Food Ingredients, product data, July 2005 (iii) Incorporating White Whole Wheat.., U.Minn Whole Grain Study, Len Marquardt et al., June 2005 (iv) ConAgra School Foodservice, customer data, August 2005 (v) ConAgra School Foodservice, recent blind consumer taste study, January 2005