Dive Brief:

• Kraft Heinz is partnering with Taco Bell on a pair of meal kits that allow consumers to make the fast food chain’s Crunchwrap Supreme and Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla at home. The Cravings Kits contain proprietary Taco Bell restaurant ingredients, seasonings and sauces.
• The kits are the first of several Taco Bell at Home innovations planned for this year and will be sold at Walmart nationwide and online. The products allow consumers to add protein and further customize the items.
• Kraft Heinz and Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum! Brands, announced in October an expansion of their partnership that set the stage for innovations such as the Cravings Kits. Kraft Heinz already makes Taco Bell branded sauces, taco kits, taco shells and seasoning mixes for sale at retail. The CPG giant also sells Benihana and TGI Fridays-branded products.

Dive Insight:

With Kraft Heinz aiming for $2 billion in incremental net sales by 2027, the food giant has turned to partnerships such as Taco Bell to help meet that goal. Taco Bell, in particular, allows the Oscar Mayer and Lunchables maker to tap into both the fast-growing consumer demand for Mexican food and a desire to replicate the restaurant experience within their own homes. 

“We’re focused on finding the white spaces at retail where we can make an impact for fans and develop products we know they will be excited to try,” Alan Kleinerman, vice president of disruptive innovation at Kraft Heinz, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Taco Bell is a great example of this.”

Consumers have gone to great lengths to replicate the popular Taco Bell menu items, and then post about them on social media. For Kraft Heinz and Taco Bell, allowing consumers to create a product that more closely duplicates what the restaurant makes — the ultimate goal of at-home fans of the chain —  gives the kits an immediate advantage and prevents the two food entities from losing sales to other products that shoppers would turn to instead.