KANSAS CITY — Convenience is king for many consumers, but they don’t want cutting meal prep time to mean cutting quality. This appetite for ease is driving food manufacturers to deliver new products that cater to the time-strapped consumer.

Riviana Foods Inc. is providing consumers with a quick route to ethnic flavors with its two new Minute Rice varieties: Minute Thai Jasmine Rice and Minute Basmati Rice. Both aromatic varieties cook in 10 minutes and are packaged in pre-portioned bags for convenience.

“We’ve listened to our customers and are thrilled to be able to offer them these two new products, which combine the same great quality and convenience that they’ve come to expect from Minute Rice with the distinct flavors and textures from the aromatic varieties,” said Paul Galvani, senior vice-president of marketing for Riviana.

Also hoping to shave minutes off consumers’ meal prep time, Hormel is introducing a line of fully cooked taco meats and hot sandwich meats. The taco meats, available in shredded chicken, shredded beef, ground beef crumbles, and shredded pork varieties, are all lightly seasoned and come in convenient 12-oz packages. The hot sandwich meats are available in 14-oz packages in Philly Style Steak and Buffalo Style Chicken varieties.

Click here for a slideshow of more new products.