The egg bite’s journey from café to retail explained
- Customer requests for breakfast sandwiches without bread helped inspire Starbucks’ sous vide egg bites.
- Cuisine Solutions has developed the format for foodservice, Costco’s private label and its own retail brand.
- Fully cooked portions offer convenient preparation, while the halal adaptation opens opportunities with Middle Eastern customers.
When customers started ordering breakfast sandwiches without the bread, Starbucks turned to Cuisine Solutions to develop a wheat-free alternative that delivered protein and convenience without a sandwich.
The US-based food manufacturer responded by developing sous vide egg bites for Starbucks’ January 2017 launch, combining eggs or egg whites with cheese and other inclusions in small, fully cooked portions. Sous vide cooking gave the bites their soft, velvety texture, and the product became a substantial part of Starbucks’ breakfast business: by September 2022, the chain said its US company-operated stores were on track to sell more than 100 million egg bites that year.
Cuisine Solutions has since developed egg bites for Costco’s Kirkland Signature private label and its own Signature Sous Vide retail brand, and more recently a halal version for Middle Eastern customers. The Starbucks, Kirkland Signature and Signature Sous Vide offerings are distinct ranges, with different recipes and branding.
The retail products put the preparation within reach of households using ordinary kitchen appliances. Consumers buy bites that have already been cooked sous vide and reheat them in a microwave, air fryer or toaster oven, making a breakfast associated with a coffeeshop visit available from a supermarket pack.
A breakfast built around the egg
Virginia-based Cuisine Solutions manufactures prepared sous vide foods ranging from beef short ribs, chicken and seafood to sauces, grains and breakfast products for restaurants, retailers, hotels and travel catering. Its chefs and food scientists develop recipes for commercial production, combining culinary expertise with controlled cooking processes.
The modern sous vide method was pioneered in 1971 by Bruno Goussault, now the company’s chief scientist. French for ‘under vacuum’, it involves sealing food in a pouch and cooking it in water held at a precise temperature for a specified time. Control over both temperature and duration allows developers to target a particular degree of cooking and texture, while the sealed pouch helps retain moisture.
In the breakfast range, the result is a soft egg-based bite that’s fully cooked before it reaches the café or household. The customer gets a convenient portion of eggs, cheese and other ingredients without preparing the mixture or managing the cooking technique.
Jenn Sheppard, chef de cuisine innovation at Cuisine Solutions, says the original concept introduced at Starbucks in 2017 centred on egg as the main ingredient, rather than protein powder added to an existing snack.
“That’s the instinct behind the original egg bite: lean into a natural protein source instead of fortifying with protein powder, preserving the quality of the eating experience,” she says. “We built the product around the egg as the hero ingredient: a single, nutrient-dense, high-protein food doing the work on its own.”
Sheppard links the company’s subsequent development to interest in protein sources and demand for convenient foods. “We’ve been growing the category through new retail and club partnerships, an ever-expanding lineup of bold, exciting flavours, and a deeper push into high-protein, low-carb portables as demand has grown alongside it.”
Her wider development brief includes breakfast handhelds and protein snacks that can be eaten with one hand, adapting classical culinary techniques for food consumed between other activities.
“Convenience used to be treated as the trade-off you accepted in exchange for quality. That thinking has shifted to optimisation: the product still delivers on taste and texture, it’s just been engineered to fit into how people actually eat now,” she says.
Taking the product into the home
Cuisine Solutions launched its two-variety Kirkland Signature Sous Vide Egg Bites range in November 2024, comprising uncured bacon and gouda, and egg white with three cheeses and roasted red pepper. Kirkland Signature is Costco’s private label brand.
Each box contains 10 fully cooked bites, which can be heated in an air fryer, microwave or toaster oven. The multipack makes several portions available from a single retail purchase, rather than requiring a separate café order each time.
Cuisine Solutions has also introduced egg bites under its own Signature Sous Vide brand, in uncured bacon and white cheddar, and egg white, tomato and spinach varieties. Products from the range are listed by Target and are described by Cuisine Solutions as a quick snack or meal for busy parents and working professionals.
The company is therefore reaching households through both a retailer’s private label and a brand of its own, alongside its established foodservice business. The fully cooked format allows the bites to be sold for preparation at home, with breakfast no longer tied to the customer’s visit to a particular outlet.
Sheppard says confidence in the company’s sous vide process allows its developers to concentrate on the other elements of the product. “That versatility changes how we approach product development: sous vide is the proven, consistent driver, which frees us to focus our attention on the format, flavour, and texture around it.”
Cuisine Solutions has also pursued an athletic audience through a multi-year partnership with the Ironman North American Series. Its associated marketing positions its sous vide foods around preparation for training and recovery, extending the protein message beyond the breakfast occasion.
But price remains part of Sheppard’s assessment of whether a chef-developed product will last. “What separates the ones with staying power from the ones that fade out is a price that feels worth paying again, and flavour that delivers from the first purchase to the hundredth,” she says.
Adapting breakfast for another market
Cuisine Solutions’ recently launched Halal Sous Vide Egg Bite in the Middle East builds on the established format. The team sourced turkey bacon in place of pork, seeking to retain the richness of the US product while meeting the requirements of the halal adaptation.
Luke Johnson, who works in international sales and business development at Cuisine Solutions, says the launch required “deep research into local regulations and regulatory bodies”. He describes the region as “not a one-size-fits-all option like the US market”.
Johnson identifies several eating occasions, including drive-through purchases after the gym or on the way to work, but emphasises the importance of shared dining. “Mainly there is an emphasis on communal and togetherness when dining,” he says.
The initial flavours are intended to appeal to Middle Eastern residents familiar with the US product, before the company develops recipes drawing on individual countries’ cuisines. Johnson describes the launch flavours as ‘the gateway’, adding: “As we move into the life cycle of the product we will start to lean into the local country core cuisine flavour profiles.”
Sheppard’s approach to flavour development draws on restaurants that introduce unfamiliar ideas while retaining recognisable tastes and textures. “The biggest influence right now comes from a sensibility more than a single method – the one behind restaurants that manage to serve you something you’ve never had before while still landing on flavours and textures that feel completely familiar,” she says.
“Consumers respond to it because it rewards their curiosity while still honouring what they already trust.”
That balance between discovery and familiarity also gives the retail ranges a starting point: shoppers who know sous vide egg bites from a café can try different flavours at home without having to learn how to prepare an unfamiliar food.
The familiarity extends to preparation: the bites are already cooked, so trying a different flavour doesn’t require shoppers to master the sous vide technique. Cuisine Solutions handles that stage, leaving consumers to reheat them using ordinary kitchen appliances.
But the real appeal extends beyond recreating a café breakfast at home: shoppers can keep several portions ready for busy mornings, without cooking from scratch.
