AUSTIN, MINN. — Hormel Foods Corp. is debuting a new ready-to-use pepperoni product at next week’s International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.

The Hormel Ribbon Pepperoni is aimed at foodservice operators searching to improve their operational efficiency and decrease the time it takes to prepare a pizza, the company said. The company developed the product after identifying the difficulty and time required to evenly portion round pepperonis, along with feedback that round formats are not always ideal for non-pizza applications.

“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 innovation follows the launch of Hormel Sliced Chorizo for retail in March 2023.