Lenard's adopts bags to throw another chook on the barbie

Brisbane-headquartered speciality chicken retailer Lenard's is pioneering a new 'barbeque in a bag' cooking concept using an innovative ready meal bag supplied by UK company Qbag.

Chicken meals packed using the the Qbag product will be sold through almost 200 stores across Australia, pre-packed with three meal varieties: Smokey Spanish Paella, Creamy Mushroom Risotto and Chicken Snags (sausages) in Onion Gravy.

The Qbag aluminium foil cooking bags are designed to withstand direct heat on a barbecue or in an oven and allow consumers to cook meat, fish, seafood, poultry and vegetables next to each other without the transfer of flavours and steam.

The bags also incorporate a see-through window on top to help the food breathe or be checked during cooking.

“Qbag is exactly the type of convenient and sustainable packaging that Lenard's have been looking for. Qbag allows us to develop exciting new dishes that would not normally be associated with outdoor cooking, and best of all leaves no mess to clean up afterwards," the national purchasing and logistics manager at Lenard's, David Keith, said.

Qbag sales executive Sonia Ginty said the Lenard's trials would help validate the company's bags for use on barbecues, building on its existing presence in the oven-ready meals market.

“The outdoor barbecue market has been largely unexplored for many companies because it's difficult to sell prepared meals in an easy and convenient way on the grill,” Ginty said.

Our Qbag products bridge this gap, offer a niche we hope companies can use to rival their competitors, whilst giving customers a new and exciting, easy, convenient and healthy way to cook your products outside, without the need to wash up after.”