Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/1038155
Produce Show Daily 5 3 Saturday, October 20, 2018 injection molding capabilities. PSD: What would you say makes your business unique? AL: Our ability to help our customers get to market much faster than our competi- tors, with a lower capital investment. Customers are often surprised at how quickly we can get their product to shelves. Customer service is core to our culture. Our flexibility and ease of doing business makes us unique. PSD: Are you introducing any new prod- ucts this season? AL: Yes, we have a lot of new tamper evident containers from our Fresh n' Sealed line. We are focused on unique containers with sleek lines. We have added ultra-clear microwavable tamper evident containers for hot foods. We have also added snack packs with multi- ple sizes and compartment configura- tions. PSD: How do you adapt your products to your customers' needs? AL: There are many ways. Sometimes we have a stock container a customer loves, but needs a different capacity or lid. We are able to design a new package to fit the product and our customer's needs. Also, because we work with a wide range of materials, we can provide our customers many options to fit the application and the price point they require. Lacerta (Cont'd. from p. 1) PSD: What products do you see as being hottest this year? AL: Prepared food options. We think our ultra-clear microwavable tamper evident containers are the perfect fit. Food security offers peace of mind with improved clarity. Customers trust and enjoy being able to see the product. A container should enhance the customer experience and show off the product. We also see grab n' go containers con- tinue to grow. Snacking is very popular and with everyone's busy schedules, convenience is key. PSD: How do you see your company's future in terms of economy, sales, tech- nology and product evolution? AL: We continue to invest in technology, with new thermoformers and equipment to maintain our speed to market, flexibil- ity and cost competiveness. We actually added multiple new thermoformers, an additional extrusion line and a sleeving line this past year. PSD: Why are your products and servic- es the best value for your customers? AL: Our customers' needs drive all of our designs; we want to enhance their product in delivery and presentation. Also, our customers can be dependent on us. We go to extremes to get things done for them and will do whatever we can if possible. For more information, visit www .lacerta.com, call 508.339.3312 or email sales@lacerta.com. Snack Food Manufacturers Broaden the Category with New Launches By Lorrie Baumann Snack food manufacturers used the show floor at this year's Sweets and Snacks Expo to showcase how they are using Americans' interest in on-the-go foods as a mandate to explore their own Manifest Destiny. They're carving out new territo- ry for the category with snacks for break- fast, snacks that can go into – and come out of – the gym bag or lunch bag with- out embarrassment and snacks that allow extreme indulgence in controlled por- tions. Cases in point: Hickory Harvest, which makes a line of trail mixes and yogurt-covered snack mixes, launched two breakfast-option trail mixes; Vannry's Snack Bars are vegan, gluten free and bound by balsamic vinegar rather than sugar; mushroom grower Porta Bela launched Shrooms, Shrooms Bars and Shrooms Jerky, all made out of mushrooms; and J&M Foods is bringing out three varieties of individually wrapped Janis & Melanie cookies, pack- aged eight to a box that will retail for $3.99. Backpackers have been nibbling trail mix with their morning tea since Dick Kelty invented the aluminum-framed rucksack in 1952, and probably for most of that time, they've con- tented themselves with chomping down the exact same trail mix they planned to eat for the rest of the hike. Well, trail mix has long since escaped from the wilderness and into the mainstream, and somewhere along the line, a lot of us stopped think- ing of it as breakfast food. Hickory Harvest is looking to change that, with its Blueberry Breakfast Blend, one of a new line offered in multi-packs of eight sin- gle-serve packages. Each of the six multi-pack snack varieties is designed to appeal to the active consumer who wants a healthy snack that can be tossed into a backpack, computer bag, lunch box or gym bag. They're offered in Blueberry Breakfast Blend, Cranberry Fitness Mix, Dark Chocolate Almonds, Peanut Butter Mountain Mix, Power Up Java Blend and Very Cherry Vibe. Cheesewich is now offering a break- fast option with its ready-to-eat Bacon N Eggs. The 3.6-ounce package includes two slices of turkey bacon and two hard- boiled eggs for a gluten-free breakfast that offers 16 grams of protein and retails for $2.39. Bauducco, known best for panettone and wafer cookies also has a new better- for-you line of Breakfast Cookies made with whole grains and double the fiber and 15 percent less fat than the market leader. The Breakfast Cookies are offered in two flavors: Milk & Cereals and Chocolate & Oats, and are packaged in boxes of eight individually wrapped packages. Nutrition information is print- ed on the front of the box, which retails for $2.99. Vannry's Snack Bars, handmade in small batches in the U.S., are targeted to the nutrition-conscious consumer who wants to see a short ingredient list on the label. Offered in nine varieties, they're vegan and gluten-free, and only the vari- eties that contain chocolate include added sugar other than the reduced bal- samic vinegar that's used to bind the ingredients together into a bar. The chocolate for the vari- eties that contain it is made in-house and sweetened with coconut sugar to ensure that no animal products have sneaked in through the sugar refining process, says Founder Linda Kim. Varieties include Almond + Seeds, Jalapeno Almonds + Seeds, Chocolate + Almonds + Seeds, Chickpeas + Seeds, Jalapeno Chickpea + Seeds, Chocolate + Chickpeas + Seeds, Coconut + Seeds, Jalapeno Coconut + Seeds and Chocolate + Coconut + Seeds. Each individually wrapped bar is a serving that offers 160 to 250 calories, depending on variety, with weights ranging from 1.25 to 1.36 ounces. They retail for $3.49. Shrooms is a new brand of flavored mushroom chips, jerky, clusters and snack bars offered by Porta Bela, which has been growing mushrooms for 80 years. In its initial launch, the chips come in Original, Mediterranean Sea Salt, Smokey Barbecue, Fire Roasted Jalapeno, Vermont White Cheddar and Pizza Slice. The Shrooms Jerky is natu- rally flavored with honey and chipotle, Shrooms Clusters come in a Wild Harvest variety that com- bines mushrooms with berries and honey, and Shrooms Bars are offered in three varieties: Crispy Mushrooms & Maple Syrup; Crispy Mushrooms, Fruit, Honey & Sea Salt; and Crispy Mushrooms and Lemon. The Chips, Jerky and Clusters are sold in 2.5-ounce packages. The Shrooms Bars are pack- aged with four individually wrapped bars per box. Shrooms are low fat, rich in minerals and Vitamin D and a good source of protein. The Jerky retails for $5.99, the Shrooms Clusters for $3.99 and the Chips for $4.99. The box of four bars retails for $3.99. From the Ground Up is another new brand with a serving of vegetables in every 1-ounce serving of the crackers or pretzels. Cauliflower Crackers come in Cheddar, Nacho and Sea Salt flavors, and Cauliflower Pretzels are offered in Original Sticks and Original Twists. Cheddar Cauliflower Crackers are offered in both 4-ounce box and a 1-ounce bag, while the Nacho and Sea Salt varieties are currently offered only in the 4-ounce box. Original Cauliflower Pretzels Sticks are offered in either a 4.5- ounce bag or a 1-ounce bag, and Original Cauliflower Pretzels Twists are offered in the 4.5-ounce bag. The ChocOat family of products from Finnish producer Goodio straddles the line between indulgence and healthy for both people and planet with bean-to- bar chocolate bars that combine organic and dairy-free chocolate with Finnish gluten-free oats. The company says it's the Finnish oats that create the smooth, velvety taste of the candy bars and that the ingredients are environmentally friendly and responsibly produced by trusted farmers. There are four varieties of the bars, which are sweetened with coconut palm sugar and contain no nuts: Original Blond Chocolate, Sweet Licorice Chocolate, Cool Mint Chocolate and Wild Blueberry Chocolate. The bars retail for $2.99. Justin's is also walking that line between healthy for people and planet and indulgent pleasure with its new Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups and Dark Chocolate Cashew Butter Cups. Packaged in a 230-calorie sin- gle serving of two nut butter cups per pack, they retail for $2.29. They join a line that had already included Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, and White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups in 2-packs that are shipped in a stand-up caddy that holds 12 and Dark Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups and Milk Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups offered in 4.7-ounce stand-up bags. Justin's is also offering White Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups in the 4.7-ounce stand-up bag new for 2018. All of the nut butter cups are organic, and Justin's focuses on using domestic, high-quality ingredients sourced as sustainably as possible, and the company focuses on social responsibility by supporting a vari- ety of non-profit organizations with prod- uct donations, monetary support and reg- ular volunteer hours. J&M Foods is launching its new Janis & Melanie Soft-Baked Cookies in three varieties, all individu- ally wrapped so they're easy to pop into a lunch box. They come in Brownie Cookies, Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies. The cookies are 3 inches in diameter with about 130 calories per cookie, and a box of eight retails for $3.99. Solidly on the side of pleasurable indulgence with great potential as a con- fection gift is Griff's Toffee, which won two sofi Awards in this year's competi- tion. Named after Griff Graves, the late husband of Griff's Toffee Founder Karen Graves and the father of company President Mark Graves, Griff's Toffee is offered in two flavors: Griff's Coffee Toffee and Griff's Pecan Toffee. The candy is crispy, but it's not a tooth-break- er, and the flavor is luxuriously buttery. The toffees are offered in both 2-ounce and 7-ounce box sizes.