Cedarlane Launches New Line with 'Zone' Author

Dr. Barry Sears, author of the popular Zone Diet series of books and founder of Zone Labs, has partnered with Cedarlane Natural Foods, Carson, Calif., to launch a an exclusive line of frozen foods under the Cedarlane/Dr. Sears Zone brand.

Sears is author of a dozen books, including the original,

Bill Barto, head of sales for Cedarlane, and Sears told Frozen Food Age at the recent National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods (NFRA) convention in San Francisco that the products will be rolled out Nov. 8.

Sears says the relationship between his Zone diet and Cedarlane is almost serendipitous. "He called me up!" says the effusive Sears in regards to his first contact with Robert Atallah, founder and president of Cedarlane. From that initial phone conversation just a few months ago is a line of 10 to 12 SKUs to be introduced next month and into December. Eventually, the line will include 60 SKUs, including dinners, entrees, snacks and breakfast foods, says Barto.

"We'll launch Nov. 8 with pizzas, enchiladas and burritos," says Barto.

Atallah says Sears is the world's leading authority on inflammation and dietary control of hormonal response. "By joining forces, we can manufacture a wide range of frozen food products that are not only affordable, convenient and easy to prepare, but that are prepared with the proper balance of carbohydrates, fats and protein as prescribed by Dr. Sears and his Zone Diet."

The products were "carefully prepared in the Cedarlane test kitchens to ensure high quality and great taste," says Atallah.

The Zone Diet was introduced 10 years ago and is a widely recognized and practiced dietary plan.

"What attracted me to Cedarlane was its reputation for top quality products that deliver great taste," says Sears. "Our alliance offers consumers many choices to help manage their weight as well as receive the proper ratio of ingredients in their meals to maintain proper hormonal balance.

"While the Zone Diet is still perceived as a weight loss diet, it was originally developed as a life-long pathway to wellness through consistent hormonal balance," says Sears. "The new Cedarlane/Zone foods are a logical extension of that thinking."

Sears points out that the new "Zoned" frozen meals adhere to the newest guidelines set by the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School. "They are the only such meals to do so, and we are quite proud of that."

Sears is leading authority in the field of dietary control of hormonal response. A former research scientist at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he has dedicated his research efforts over the past 25 years to the study of lipids and their inflammatory role in the development of chronic disease. He holds 13 U.S. patents in the areas of intravenous drug delivery systems and hormonal regulation for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. His research has been included in many published studies.