Old El Paso has unveiled its biggest taco innovation wave to date, revamping its entire crunchy taco range and launching five new products designed to meet surging consumer demand for convenient, customisable, Mexican\u2011inspired meals at home.<\/p>\n
The move lands as tacos continue their rapid rise: searches for taco\u2011related meals have climbed 261% year\u2011on\u2011year, while Mexican food sales have grown 17% (NielsenIQ, January 2025).<\/p>\n
Industry Pulse sees these shifts \u2014 and Old El Paso\u2019s latest activity \u2014 offering a clear window into how brands are responding to evolving consumer expectations around flavour, convenience and experience.<\/p>\n
A category moving fast \u2014 and a brand keeping pace<\/p>\n
The headline launch is the New Smoky BBQ Crunchy Taco Kit, which introduces Old El Paso\u2019s signature Smoky BBQ flavour to hard shells for the first time. The brand has also rolled out the Street Vibes Birria Taco Kit, tapping into one of the world\u2019s most viral street\u2011food trends, and a Sweet Paprika & Garlic Soft Taco Kit aimed at families seeking bold flavour without heat.<\/p>\n
Two new cooking sauces \u2014 Chipotle Taco Cooking Sauce and Fajita Cooking Sauce \u2014 expand the brand\u2019s reach into quick, flavour\u2011packed meal solutions.<\/p>\n
But the most significant move is the complete reformulation of Old El Paso\u2019s crunchy taco shells. The brand has upgraded four SKUs using whole corn kernels and a traditional nixtamalisation technique to deliver lighter, crispier shells with improved corn flavour \u2014 a manufacturing\u2011driven enhancement that aligns with broader industry trends around process\u2011led quality improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers are looking for quick and convenient meals at home, but they still want great taste and customisable dishes that can please the whole household,\u201d said Nicole Whelan, head of brand, Old El Paso & Green Giant UKI. \u201cFrom Smoky BBQ to Birria, these launches are designed to help people explore more Mexican\u2011inspired food at home and turn everyday meals into something special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why this matters for the industry<\/p>\n
Old El Paso\u2019s taco innovation wave reflects several wider factors driving the market:<\/p>\n
Experience-led eating at home: consumers increasingly want restaurant\u2011style formats without the cost or complexity of eating out.Flavour exploration: Birria, chipotle and smoky profiles continue to dominate social feeds and retail innovation pipelines.Manufacturing differentiation: The nixtamalisation upgrade shows how process improvements can become consumer\u2011facing value propositions.Category modernisation: World Foods is shifting from \u201cmeal kits\u201d to \u201cmeal experiences\u201d, with brands investing in multi\u2011million\u2011pound campaigns to build cultural relevance.<\/p>\n
Old El Paso\u2019s fully integrated The Crunch is Calling campaign \u2014 spanning Linear TV, VOD, OOH, paid social and influencer activity \u2014 underscores how competitive and fast\u2011moving this category has become.<\/p>\n
The launches highlights a broader trend: meal\u2011centre categories are increasingly driven by experience, not just convenience. For manufacturers, retailers and ingredient suppliers, this shift presents opportunities to innovate around texture, interactivity, and bold flavour systems that elevate at\u2011home dining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Old El Paso has unveiled its biggest taco innovation wave to date, revamping its entire crunchy taco range…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-362903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}