Product showcase: From squeezable silky-smooth nut butters and frozen vegan baked goods to salty and sweet combos
Extending Veganuary
Frank Dale is aiming to capitalise on the growing plant-based trend with the introduction of three vegan additions to its range of frozen baked goods.
Spring Vegetable & Mature Cheese Tart, Mini Chocolate & Raspberry Cakes and Woodland Berry & Sable Crust Tart join the brand’s original vegan line up of mini quiche, mini pies and Vegan Cherry Tomato, Red Pepper and Basil Quiche.
“As a consumer brand, we feel it’s essential to cater for all dietary requirements. With the vegan sector rapidly increasing in popularity, we have increased our plant-based offering from three to six savoury and sweet dishes,” said Ed Miles, MD of Frank Dale.
“The reality is that vegan meals can be expensive as well as time consuming to prepare from scratch at home, our newest products make it easy for our customers to enjoy the benefits of a vegan diet, delivering a selection of cost effective, convenient and most importantly delicious solutions to suit a variety of eating occasions.”
The pandemic has forced the ‘go-to’ brand for professional chefs to pivot operations and it recently established a direct-to-consumer platform. Products are delivered direct to the door in a convenient frozen format; made with responsibly sourced ingredients and that ‘handmade’ touch.
The newest offerings have a RRP of £4.99-£6.99.
'Swavoury' tastes
Pladis is again turning the snacking occasion on its head with another ‘swavoury’ flavour combination for its £14.3 million Flipz brand.
Flipz Cookies & Cream give fans a taste of the familiar savory-sweet combo they know and love – with the brand’s signature salty pretzel coated in a Cookies & Cream glaze.
“Since launching into the UK market in 2018, Flipz has quickly become one of the biggest new snack brand launches in the past 5 years – and we can attribute a large part of this to our exciting pipeline of innovation,” said Jonathan Bull, marketing director, Chocolate, Cake Seasonal at pladis UK&I.
“We want to maintain strong momentum for the Flipz brand, and adding tasty, trend-led flavour combinations to our core line-up will help the brand appeal to even more shoppers.
“Cookies & Cream felt like the natural fit for the latest Flipz variant, as this flavour phenomenon shares the brand’s American roots and has become a classic combination both in the US and worldwide.”
Flipz Cookies & Cream is available in major retailers across the UK, including Asda, Sainsbury’s and Co-op, as well as in wholesale and convenience in a 90g pack format at an RRP of £1.50. Packaging is recyclable through pladis’ partnership with Terracycle.
Squeezable nut butters
Mexican producer Lasto Foods has rolled out its line of all-natural nut butters in mess-free squeezable containers in the US, following the brand’s success in its home market.
The complete line includes Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Cinnamon Almond Butter, Pumpkin Spice Almond Butter and Matcha Almond Butter, made with 100% natural ingredients, with no additional oils or stabilisers.
The concept is the brainchild of siblings Alicia and Alejandra Torres Candé who set out to not only craft a silky-smooth alternative to traditional nut butters, but also a functional product, designed for versatility and convenience.
“As a trained chef and life-long foodie, I am constantly experimenting with flavours, presentation, textures and ways I can make dishes even healthier,” said Alicia, CEO of Lasto Foods.
“Lasto Foods is truly a labour of love and a combination of all of my passions: health, nutrition and food and after building a loyal following in Mexico, I’m so excited to now share our products with more consumers throughout the US.”
The complete line of nut butters is available on the company’s site, along with Amazon, for an RRP of $8.00-$13.00 per 12oz container.
Make today a pizza day
Mediterranean foods supplier Dina Foods has expanded its flagship Paninette flatbreads range to include a soft-dough pizza base that can be filled, used as a wrap or topped like a pizza.
“The versatile new product is being launched in response to the growing demand for quick and healthy meal-time solutions, as working from home becomes the new normal,” said Suheil Haddad, MD of Dina Foods.
“Each member of the household can create their own bespoke pizza with toppings of their choice, which makes for an instant win across all age groups.”
The 8” white-bread Paninette pizza bases are vegan-friendly and packed in modified atmospheric packaging meaning they have a 90-day shelf life.
The concept has launched into supermarkets, convenience stores and foodservice outlets in the UK in packs of four.
As part of a launch promotion, free sachets of a za’atar herbs mix, made with dried thyme, sesame seeds, salt and sumac, are included with the first 20,000 Paninette pizza base packets, along with an easy to follow recipe for Za’atar Manakeesh.
“Paninette pizza bases are also perfect for authentic Lebanese pizzas, known as Manakeesh, with toppings such as thyme, sesame and olive oil mix; with minced lamb (Lahm Bi Ajeen); or cheeses such as halloumi and mozzarella,” added Haddad.
Perfectly poppable
McKee Foods has added a new flavour to its growing family of Little Debbie mini muffins and brownies.
Strawberry Shortcake is a flavour often requested by consumers, and the Little Debbie brand owner has rolled out the new variant into US convenience stores.
The bite-sized muffins are packaged four muffins to a pouch and five pouches to a carton, making them a great pantry-ready addition for the whole family to enjoy.
“One of the perks of working at McKee Foods is that my family gets to taste new products before anyone else,” said Erica Harrison, Little Debbie product manager.
“My 8-year-old son absolutely loves it when I bring home goodies to try. Most recently, he opened up a fresh pack of Strawberry Shortcake Mini Muffins and his delight was priceless. He did not stop at just one pack. Needless to say, they are now one of his favourites.”
According to McKee Foods, the Little Debbie brand is the No. 1 brand in the baked sweet goods category, purchased more than 50 times per second in the US and Canada.
New breakfast staple?
Following the successful launch of the brand’s Chocolate & Hazelnut variant, Whole Earth has combined the UK’s two most popular spreads, honey and peanut butter, to create a moorish option to delight breakfast devotees.
Made with real honey, the spread is great as a standard spread, but is also great as a porridge or cereal topping. According to Kantar Worldpanel’s January 2020 research, a growing number of consumers love incorporating peanut butter into their breakfast cereals and porridges.
“Whole Earth Smooth Peanut Butter with Honey brings together two powerhouses in the spreads category into one jar,” said Bryan Martins, Whole Earth marketing and category director at Ecotone UK (formerly Wessanen).
“For all those people who add both peanut butter and honey to their breakfast, it is not only convenient but also tastes incredible. Both naturally delicious, the flavours of peanut butter and honey marry together perfectly. Following the rapid boom of baking during lockdowns, we predict Whole Earth Honey Peanut Butter to be a staple in every avid baker’s pantry.”
Whole Earth continues to focus on its ‘Good for you, good for the Earth’ strategy and has teamed up with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) to plant 20,000 trees in Sumatra. It is also an official supporter of Team GB for the 2021 Olympic Games to raise awareness of the natural goodness of peanut butter.
Cracking climate change
Moonshot is on a mission to tackle climate change by changing the way the world snacks.
Moonshot’s carbon-neutral crackers are made with regeneratively grown ingredients that help sequester more carbon in the soil. The plant-based crackers are certified USDA Organic and Kosher and contain no GMOs or added sugars, available in three flavours: Sourdough Sea Salt, Rosemary Garlic and Tomato Basil.
Moonshot is a certified WBENC woman-owned business and BIPOC-founded and owned. Taking its sustainability message a step further, its crackers can be purchased from Zero Grocery in San Francisco, the first online zero-waste grocer in the US, for an RRP of $5.99.
Bread from Barcelona
Europastry has launched Cristal 100% Natural, a range of breads made from 100% natural ingredients – only Water + Flour + Sourdough + Olive oil – for the American market.
The wholesome bread is made following a traditional recipe from Spain and contains no additives, making it a clean label option.
The quality of the ingredients, the highly hydrated dough (90% water content) and the new generation non-acid lactic sourdough give the bread a thin crunchy crust and a light honeycomb texture, making it an ideal foundation for sandwiches.
It is also perfect for toasting: after just two minutes in the oven or toaster, the result is a very crunchy crust, just like freshly baked bread.
Europastry is offering four references for the retail market and four for wholesale distribution through the foodservice channel, including the Cristal Burger Bun, the Cristal Bagel Bun, the Cristal Sandwich Roll and the Cristal Artisan Sliced Bread, inspired by the Catalan ‘Pa amb tomàquet’ (tomato bread).
Made by kids for kids
Kellogg’s has expanded its W.K Kellogg by Kids range with the launch of better-for-you snack bars.
As part of the breakfast cereal giant’s drive to encourage families to make healthier choices, the W.K Kellogg by Kids range launched in 2020 with W.K Kellogg by Kids Multigrain Shapes Cereal, the first mainstream children’s cereal to be made with veg. Due to its popularity, this has now be expanded into W.K Kellogg by Kids Bars.
Made with fruit, veg and wholegrains, the bars also contain no added sugar, artificial colours or flavours and are less than 100 calories per bar.
The bars were developed in collaborative workshops with 2,000 children and parents to ensure the end product was something parents would be happy to buy for their kids – and be something that kids would love – and come in two flavours: Orange & Carrot and Strawberry, Raspberry & Beetroot.
“The kids’ market for products that are both tasty and nutritious has been mostly untapped, so we’re thrilled to be able to meet demand by expanding our W.K Kellogg by Kids range and give parents the option to buy snacks they’re confident their children will enjoy while not having to worry about them being unhealthy,” said Catriona Campbell-Voegt, nutritionist and Kellogg’s wellbeing lead in the UK.
The bars are now available in Morrisons stores nationwide, with further rollout to other retailers, for an RRP of £2.49 for a pack of five bars.
Improved recipe
Organic brand Clearspring has relaunched its popular Organic Wholegrain Rice Cakes range, reformulated to be ‘exceptionally crispy and satisfying’.
According to the producer, the larger, crunchier rice cakes tap into the trend amongst consumers for healthier and free from snacking options. The entire range is gluten free, non-GMO, dairy-free, free from artificial ingredients, contain no added sugar, are suitable for vegans, while being just 27-28 calories per cake.
The addition of two new flavours – No Added Salt and Lightly Salted – is also very timely, as more consumers add organic to their shopping baskets. Nielsen data confirms that organic products saw a 9.5% increase in sales in the period to 3 October 2020, compared with a 6.6% increase in non-organic food sales.
“We have worked extremely hard and diligently to relaunch our Organic Wholegrain Rice Cakes, with an improved recipe and larger, crunchier cakes,” said Maria Dawson, director at Clearspring.
“They are light, low-calorie and can be tailored to personal tastes with a wide array of healthy sweet and savoury toppings including fruit, vegetables and spreads. They give people a healthier snacking option compared to other snacks while still delivering satisfaction at snack times.”
The rice cakes are being rolled out in retail outlets across the UK.
