Food Processing - September 2007 - (Page 27)

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Quaker takes the health halo of rice cakes, adds other grains and drizzles it with chocolate to create mini delights. Can a rice cake be decadent? By Hollis Ashman and Jacqueline Beckley, Consumer Understanding Editors M ultigrain snack products have increased in the past few years. They appear to be riding the change in USDA’s Dietary Guidelines of 2005, which recommend three or more servings of whole grains a day. Quaker Oats has had rice cakes in its portfolio for almost 20 years. With the trend for more grain interest, it makes sense Quaker considered how to add value to its rice cakes through the addition of a variety of grains, not just rice. Quaker folks surely were concerned that consumers needed snacks that were healthy and tasted really good. We at the Understanding & Insight Group took a second look at this unassuming product because of the very clever product design. We feel Quaker created more than just a snack cake. These mini snack cakes give the same taste and mouthfeel experience of a popular and familiar (and competitive) fudge stripe shortbread cookie. Whether intentional or not, Quaker created a cookie experience in a 90-calorie rice cake snack. Understanding the marketplace Sales of healthy snack foods in the U.S. grew from $13.7 billion in 2002 to $14.7 billion in 2004, an increase of nearly 7 percent, according to Mintel’s 2005 Healthy Snacking rewww.foodprocessing.com port. Consumers eat a lot of snacks: 75 percent of people snack at least once a day, according to the American Dietetic Assn. (2000), and these snacks supply 23-25 percent of the average consumer’s total daily calorie intake. So the healthfulness of the snack has become important. Healthy snacks have gained shelf space in grocery stores and convenience stores. They are an expected product in a grocery aisle, not just a product that can only be purchased at a health food store. In the healthy snack category there are four major competitors: Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg and PepsiCo. Each has a broad product portfolio that covers multiple food categories. These companies account for nearly half (48 percent) of all healthy snack sales. When choosing healthy snacks, consumers look for a healthrelated benefit, which many times reflects lowered fat, all natural, whole grains, portion control, high fiber or moderation in sodium. One of the perceived gaps for healthy snacks is that they do not always taste as good as regular snacks. This continues to be a leverageable opportunity for snack food manufacturers. For a food to be craveable, it must not only have a great flavor but also a great texture. A complex flavor (multiple tastes) and a simple or moderately complex texture drives craveablity, according to our own Crave It! studies. Mini Delights sepTemBer 2007 food processing • 27 http://www.foodprocessing.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Processing - September 2007

Contents Editor's Plate Power Lunch NewsBites Regulatory Issues Rollout Food Biz Kids Product Spotlight Next-Generation Manufacturing Models Product Development Ingredients Packaging Show Previews New Product Profiles Toops Scoops

Food Processing - September 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.