Snack happy

Recent food & drink highlights from Mintel's gnpd (Global New ProductsDatabase) include a number of innovative new snack products. For example, the Kraft-owned Vegemite yeast spread brand is attempting to expand its horizons by introducing into Australia savoury snacks with a Vegemite flavour.

Energy bars continue to be introduced from the mainstream players. Past examples have included Cadbury's Boost Guarana, Milka Energy from Kraft Jacobs Suchard and Ritter Sport Guarana Crunch from Alfred Ritter. Cadbury has now continued the trend with the South African introduction of the Tempo countline. It comprises a 57g shortcake biscuit bar with guarana and caramel, coated in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.

Boil-in-the-bag pasta is another intersteing development. The boil-in-the-bag cooking process has done much to make cooking rice easier, and facilitate portion control. Now, years later, the concept has moved into the dry pasta market with a number of boil-in-the-bag children's pasta products.

For example, back in April 2003 Mintel reported on the Belgian launch of boil-in-the-bag Soubry Kids Pasta animal-shaped pasta enriched with vitamins, calcium and iron. Now, another pasta maker, Lustucru has done the same in France with single-serve La Bande à Lustucru boil-in-the-bag pasta for kids in assorted shape varieties (e.g. bears, alphabets, shells). The Lustucru line also has a healthy positioning claiming to be a good source of calcium as the pasta is made with milk.

Some interesting crisp flavours have been developed for the Asian market by Lay's snack brand from Pepsico. These have included crispy rice and seaweed. Now, the brand is being given a citrus touch with the Chinese introduction of a lemon flavoured variety. Corn chips with lemon (a more traditional combination) have been reported in the past, but it is interesting to see the flavour used in potato snacks, perhaps indicating a move towards more delicate tastes.

Kraft Foods is currently testing Kraft Lunch Specials, a psuedo-Lunchables for adults. The easily portable kit, the box comes with a handle built in, features servings of a variety of Kraft products already available: It's Pasta Anytime spaghetti with marinara sauce, SnackWell's-brand cookies, and Crystal Light lemonade. The entire meal packs 510 calories but only 8g of fat and is retailing for $2.99 in select markets in Wisconsin. Another adult-oriented product is also new from Kraft under its Jell-O brand. Jell-O Smoothie Snacks feature real fruit, have only 100 calories and 2.5g of fat. The chilled snack comes in a Strawberry Banana flavour.

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