CINCINNATI — Kroger Co. is expanding its Our Brands lines to offer more value, variety and quality. The new products will supplement the company’s more than 30,000 Our Brands items, including food, beauty, personal care, pet and household essentials, many of which are made at one of Kroger’s 38 U.S. production plants.

“Our Brands sold a record-setting 8.2 billion units in 2016, which equates to customers choosing to add 1.25 million of our exclusive products to their shopping carts every hour that our stores are open,” said Gil Phipps, Kroger’s vice president of Our Brands. “Through innovation, we are committed to introducing new items monthly that give our customers a wide selection of choices and price points, and always guaranteed quality.”

Our Brands foods lines — including Kroger, Private Selection, Simple Truth, Simple Truth Organic and HemisFares — are rigorously tested and consistently evaluated to ensure that they continue to win consumers’ approval. Kroger’s chefs, food scientists and culinary experts are constantly exploring, testing and inventing to enhance its organic, natural, premium, fusion, value and conventional offerings.

In third-party blind taste tests, Our Brands has routinely outperformed competitive national brands and other private label food, the company says. Flavor-forward and specialty products introduced by Our Brands this year include:

• Two HemisFares items — Japanese dry-aged red miso and double-brewed soy sauce.
• Two products under the Kroger label — simply baked french fries with olive oil and sea salt, and deluxe funnel cake ice cream.
• Three Simple Truth products — dairy-free paletas (fruit bars), organic blueberry ginger kombucha and organic cold brew coffee.
• Private Selection Moroccan BBQ and basting sauce.
New Our Brands items already out include Simple Truth Low Cow Lite ice cream, with 240 to 280 calories and 24 grams of protein per pint. The first six flavors are birthday cake, chocolate, lemon cake, mint chocolate chip, sea salt caramel and vanilla bean.

Along with the commitment to expand Our Brands offerings, Kroger recently launched its Prep+Pared meal kits pilot in selected Cincinnati-area stores. Prep+Pared meal kits promise restaurant-quality meals that are easy to cook in about 20 minutes.

The company added 55 to 60 private label food items and household products per month between January and the end of June. This year alone it added some 1,000 items in stores that operate under a variety of local banners in 35 states and the District of Columbia.