Press Releases

SALINAS, CA (October 4, 2005)Monterey Gourmet Foods (NASDAQ: PSTA) announced today that their Whole Wheat Pasta line, introduced late last year, is proving to be a winner in the marketplace. The sales volume of this new line has grown significantly throughout the year and is expected to represent 15% of Monterey Gourmet Foods’ total pasta sales in the third quarter after less than a year on the market. The whole wheat line has been key to the company’s increasing its overall Monterey Pasta Company brand business above prior year levels in the third quarter. This development is a welcome turn of events after two years of sagging pasta sales attributed to the low-carb diet trend. In addition to improved sales of the Monterey Pasta Company brand, the company is also seeing strong contribution from its acquisitions, Sonoma Cheese Company and Casual Gourmet Foods, CIBO Naturals and Emerald Valley Organics.

Monterey's CEO, Jim Williams, commented, “We are very excited to see this innovation in the fresh pasta category win such quick acceptance by our customers and consumers. As a smaller, more responsive company, we can be first in our class to capture new food trends. In the case of whole wheat pasta, we saw early last year that this was an emerging opportunity due to consumers’ shift to more sensible diet programs such as the South Beach Diet and Weight Watchers that include consumption of ‘good carbs’ such as whole grains and fruits."

Continuing, Mr. Williams stated "Our first four whole wheat pasta items met with such immediate success that our customers asked for more. So, we have introduced four new and innovative varieties, now having a total of eight whole wheat items, including Vegetable and Cheese Ravioli, Basil, Tomato and Mozzarella Ravioli, Roasted Chicken and Sun Dried Tomato Ravioli, Spicy Chicken with Pesto Ravioli, Tuscan Style Roasted Pepper Ravioli, Classic Italian Cheese Tortellini, Spinach and Cheese Tortelloni, and Five Cheese Borsellini.”

With its whole wheat pasta line, Monterey Gourmet Foods has added new distribution to an impressive list of strong retailers across the country. Mr. Williams says, "We are very pleased with this new distribution and are especially proud of gaining our first-ever pasta distribution with the Publix Supermarkets chain, which operates over 700 supermarkets in the Southeast and now carries six Monterey Gourmet Foods whole wheat items. In total, the company's refrigerated whole wheat pasta line is now carried in more than 4,000 supermarkets and club stores nationwide."

Founded in 1987, Monterey Gourmet Foods now markets more than 200 different fresh gourmet food products for the premium food consumer that are distributed in more than 9,700 retail and club stores throughout the United States, selected regions of Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Monterey Gourmet Foods continues to introduce new product lines such as refrigerated and frozen entrees, grilled wraps and whole wheat pastas that are focused outside of its traditionally strong base of pastas and sauces. Recent acquisitions of Casual Gourmet Foods and Sonoma Cheese Company have allowed the Company to expand into the areas of award-winning sausages, premium refrigerated soups and gourmet cheeses, building a diversified and stable platform for growth that minimizes dependence on one product category or distribution channel.