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ways have something that's perishable when you're on the go with kids," Patton said. "The reality is that we're not trying to be a substitute for fresh fruits or vegetables, we're trying to be the better choice when you're going to eat cookies or chips." The range of products they created in- cludes three lines: Smart Crackers, Good Cookies and Smart Cookies. They're all made with nutritionally meaningful amounts of vegetables; they're U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture-certified organic and non-GMO. They're also free of peanuts, tree nuts and eggs. A number of them are also vegan, although a few products con- tain dairy. "The veggie content is meaning- ful in terms of nutrition, although we don't want to encourage people to eat them in- stead of fresh fruits and vegetables. We work very hard to put a very meaningful amount of vegetables in all our products while keeping them affordable," Patton said. "You're not just eating something that's flour and sugar here." Bitsy's Smart Crackers are smart in their ingredients and they're smart in their shapes, which are based on tangrams, the classic puzzle game. "You can make a horse out of them. You can make a rabbit out of them," Patton said. "We like playing with our food. We have always said that playing with your food is good." Flavors include Cheddar Chia Veggie, Garden Ranch, Sweet Maple Carrot and Cinnamon Sweet Potato Graham. They're packaged in a multipack box with five packs per box that retails for $4.99. Each pack inside is indi- vidually nutrition-la- beled, and it's one serving. Bitsy's Smart Cookies are shaped like letters of the alphabet. "People like to spell out words with them," Patton said. They're offered in Sweet Potato Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Orange Beet and Gingerbread Zuc- chini Carrot flavors. They're sold in a re- sealable 5-ounce gusset bag that retails for $4.99. Bitsy's Good Cookies is the newest addi- tion to the line. These are round cookies stamped with inspirational messages that appeal to both children and adults. They are offered in the same flavors as the Smart Cookies. "These cookies have a message about the lexicon that all of us want kids to have," Patton said. "'Believe,' 'Team- work,' 'Make a wish,' 'Do great things,' 'Love,' 'Be a friend.' We went back to our network of teachers, put out a survey and asked kids to vote on different phrases. Then we analyzed that data across different age groups and determined the ones that resonated with differ- ent age groups, the mes- sages that resonated across the age groups." "Bitsy's is an organic fam- ily food brand that started with kids," she continued. "It has broadened. We started very focused on just kids, but we realized that more age groups were eat- ing our products.... We had a huge part of our con- sumer base that were older eating our alphabet cookies. We wanted to stay true to brand and stay educational and playful and creative, but also have broad age-appeal." Bitsy's Good Cookies are packaged as a multipack of five snack packs that retails for $4.99. Each cookie within a package has a different saying. "You have a little bag of inspiration," Patton said. All of the products have national distri- bution, including Whole Foods and Sprouts. The company is based in New York and Atlanta, Georgia. GN GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2018 www.gourmetnews.com NATURALLY HEALTHY 1 7 Bitsy's Bakes a Better Snack for Kids BY LORRIE BAUMANN Bitsy's is a brand built around the idea that kids' snacks can do more for them than just fill them up between meals – they can pres- ent opportunities to learn healthy eating habits, and they can even deliver affirma- tive messages. The company was founded by Maggie Patton and Alex Buckley, who were pursuing their careers in childhood education and wellness when it occurred to them that snacks could be a vehicle for veg- etables that could be fun and flavorful and that kids would actually enjoy eating. "We created something for families with the idea of putting kids first," Patton said. "We spent a long time thinking about start- ing the company, making up recipes with vegetables.... When we wanted to create a brand, we wanted not just a cleaner kind of a snack, but something that was the best in many ways, a bit more kind, a bit more al- lergen-friendly. The brand promise is 'Doing a little bit more' and the idea that the little bits add up." Parents themselves – Patton has a seven- year-old, a five-year-old and a two-year-old, while Buckley has an eight-year-old and a five-year-old – they knew that packaged snacks are a reality of parents' lives. They go into the school backpack, the lunch box that goes along to day care and into Mom's purse for weekend outings. "You can't al- Washington State Launches New Apple Variety Washington state apple growers have launched a new variety of apple into the market this year. The Cosmic Crisp ® apple is a bi-colored yellow and red apple bred – not genetically engineered – to sat- isfy consumers who might be a little bored with Washington's Red Delicious apple, a long-time traditional variety for school lunch boxes that has been declin- ing in popularity over the past several years. Cosmic Crisp has been in development for more than 20 years with excellent stor- age capability as well as a sweet, juicy fla- vor with a lot of crunch to it. The skin is thick enough to protect it from being easily bruised but thin enough so it's not too tough to eat. It's considered to be an excel- lent variety for snacking and slicing as well as baking, with chef tests showing that it has the sweetness and texture that com- prise good characteristics for baked goods and pairings. Washington state growers, who collec- tively produce about 72 percent of the country's apples, are collaborating to grow this new cultivar, with over 6 million trees planted in the state already and another 5 million expected to be planted in 2019. That's expected to make enough of the Cos- mic Crisp apples available to the American market to fulfill expected consumer de- mand and to provide apples for export. The apple has already been shown at Fruit Lo- gistica and Asia Logistica. The Cosmic Crisp apple should start showing up in the retail market next fall. The national launch, orchestrated by Proprietary Variety Management, a com- mercialization company that specializes in new fruit varieties, will include pack- aging, in-store marketing and digital marketing through social influencers. The launch is on track to be the largest investment in consumer marketing ever for a single apple variety, with a cam- paign cost expected to come in over $10 million. GN Hippie Snacks Launches New Cauliflower Crisps and Avocado Crisps Hippie Snacks, a Burnaby, British Colum- bia-based company specializing in pre- mium plant-based foods, has added two new products to its lineup: Cauliflower Crisps (in Original and Classic Ranch flavors) and Avocado Crisps (in Guacamole and Sea Salt). The fresh cauliflower and avocado is seasoned with sea salt, seeds, and herbs and baked for the perfect crunch. Both of- ferings are made with real ingredients you can pronounce, with five grams of protein in each serving. With the rise of cauliflower as a healthier carbohydrate alternative, the vegetable has become a popular ingredient for pizza crust and rice substitutes. Hippie Snacks is the first brand in North America to launch a snack using real cauliflower as the first in- gredient. "Hippie Snacks' new crisps take ingredi- ents that people love and put them into a snackable format that everyone can get ex- cited about," says Ian Walker, President and Founder of Hippie Snacks. "You can actually see the real food ingredients, and taste the roasted cauliflower." Why avocado and cauliflower? Walker is a huge fan of both – so much so that the team at Hippie Snacks has been working for years to cre- ate an avocado snack, experimenting with a variety of methods, from freeze-drying to vacuum-frying. With baked Avocado Crisps, the company knew it had succeeded in creating a tasty snack with the perfect amount of crunch. "There's a real reward that comes with knowing what we want to do and seeing it come to fruition," says Walker. "These crisps are a delicious addition to our snack range, and I hope people enjoy them as much as I do!" The new Crisps will be available online and in-store in the U.S. shortly, with cur- rent distribution across Canada. Hippie Snacks' tagline is "Real food tastes better," and all of the company's products include non-GMO, plant-based foods, seasoned with natural ingredients. Other Hippie Snacks products include Coconut Clusters, Seed & Nut Clusters, Sesame Snacks, Grain-Free Granola, and Coconut Chips which can be found at Starbucks, Whole Foods PNW, Sprouts Farmers Market and other retailers across North America. GN

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