Snack World - May 2012 - 51

OTHER SALTY SNACKS

Beans, Veggies Boost Healthy Appeal
To meet consumers’ concerns about health or their willingness to try more adventurous products, snack food manufacturers continue to develop salty snacks that don’t fit into traditional categories, and these items wind up in the “other salted snacks” category, which has experienced strong and steady growth. While it excludes products made with nuts, the allencompassing “other” category includes a wide variety of unconventional snack foods. Last summer, Hungry Girl, a free daily email subscription service about healthy eating, asked on its website, “Are beans the new snack food?” Pointing out that beans are nutrientpacked and gluten-free, the website highlighted several new crispy snacks made with beans, including Baked Lentil Chips from Mediterranean Snack Food Co., Boonton, NJ; All Natural Roasted Chickpea Snacks from The Good Bean, Berkeley, CA; and bean-based chips from Beanitos, Inc., Austin, TX. Dan McGrady, vice-president, technical services, Wyandot, Inc., Marion, OH, noted that the most prevalent emerging trend involves better-for-you products that are whole- or multigrain and gluten-free, and have no artificial or flavors. To that end, company’s fabricated chip line permits it to make products with “an almost limitless potential of combinations of flours, meals, bean proteins and fiber.” This potentially allows snacks to deliver a serving of vegetables in each snack serving while making a variety of health claims, he noted. Additionally, Wyandot, a contract and private label manufacturer, uses its twin-screw extrusion systems to incorporate “a variety of ingredients including potato, rice, bean and a multitude of other vegetables, allowing may of the same kind of healthy claims,” Mr. McGrady said. Inventure Foods, Phoenix, AZ, partnered with Nathan’s Famous to license the popular restaurant brand name for a new line of snacks last fall. This past September, the company introduced Garden Select vegetable crisps under its Boulder Canyon Natural Foods brand. Made with a blend of 12 vegetables, the chips provide three-quarters a serving of vegetables in each serving. Frito-Lay North America, Plano, TX, expanded its Smartfood brand of ready-to-eat (RTE) popcorn to include popped chips under the Smartfood Selects. Made with all-natural ingredients, Smartfood Selects launched four varieties of popped chips. To help consumers make informed choices, each package features nutrition icons on the front of the package that highlight calories per serving, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar. Shearer’s Foods, Inc., Brewster, OH, offers Riceworks and Wild Riceworks crisps, which are whole-grain, gluten-free and lower in fat than most salty snacks. They contain no trans fats, cholesterol, preservatives or artificial flavors, and they have 33% less fat than the most popular salty snacks. Wild Riceworks crisps, which are available in a Sea Salt and Black Sesame variety, combine whole-grain brown rice and wild rice in a product that has been described as somewhere between a chip and cracker. Utz Quality Foods, Hanover, PA, also markets Rice Crisps, made with whole-grain brown rice, for consumers looking for healthy snacking alternatives. Rice Crisps, which are available in Sea Salt, Sweet Chili and Salsa Fresca varieties, contain 0 g trans fat, no cholesterol and 11 g whole grains per serving. Overall sales increased 8% in the other salted snacks category, which makes it the second-fastest-growing category in the salted snacks market behind RTE popcorn, according to SymphonyIRI data. And it is the third-largest category in salty snacks behind potato chips and tortilla chips. — Shane Whitaker

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May 2012

Snack World

51
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Snack World - May 2012

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