Oser Communications Group

FOODIES FOCUS www.kitchenwarenews.com n JANUARY 2019 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 1 9 Functional Candy Market (cont. from Page 18) more than $11 billion in retail sales globally in 2010. Allied Market Research in Portland, Oregon, projects the functional candy market to grow at a combined annual growth rate of 3.9 percent through 2022. Outside the Segments But at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in May in Chicago, Illinois, plenty of functional candies outside those segments were on display. Coffee-fortified candies were big. The Seattle Gummy Company showed its caffeine-infused chocolate gummy bears, which each provide about 12 mg of caffeine, or the amount in an average cup of coffee. With two flavors – chocolate raspberr y and chocolate orange -- the gummy bears come two to a package, and they 're tasty, with no bitter caffeine aftertaste. D unkin' Donuts displayed its Coffee Thins in three flavors, each with 7 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of a half-cup of coffee. The little squares are creamy and smooth like chocolate, but are made f rom 100 percent Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Candy bars with "superfood" inclusions – f rom pumpkin seeds to guarana – were also popular. K'ul, puts its functional candy bars in high-end packaging to look at home in Whole Foods and other popular retailers, rather than in health food stores. Fantasy Candies of Cleveland, Ohio, incorporates chia into some of its SweetDreams72 bars. O wner and Chocolatier Joel Fink says the addition of chia, f ruit and nuts allows him to reduce the amount of chocolate in each bar by about 25 percent, which also reduces their sugar and saturated fat content. Other functional bars combine chocolate with additional nutrients to enhance benefits. Good Cacao said its Organic Superfood Chocolate Bars are infused with lemon ginger for immunity, coconut enhanced with omega-3s, nutriberry for a healthy heart, and peppermint for a clear mind. Its bars also include maca, and "nutriplankton." Xan Confections labels its functional chocolates with the names of the conditions each bar's inclusions are said to help: CocoBrain includes vitamin A, C, D3, E and Folic Acid; CocoHeart includes CoQ10; CocoPreggers includes vegetarian DHA and CocoPMS has chasteberry and bilberry. Mars' Snickers Marathon Protein Bar includes protein (20 grams in Caramel Nut Rush and 21 grams in Chocolaty Nut Burst), and both flavors are deemed an "excellent source of fiber" with 10 grams each. Consumers may take naturally to these chocolate confections because they 're already thinking about chocolate's antioxidant virtues, researchers say. But a Mintel survey found that consumers were as likely to prefer mints as a delivery system for functional ingredients as they were to prefer hard candy. The 2016 Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements report said slightly more than half of respondents (55 percent) also liked the idea of gum as a functional vehicle. Several large manufacturers were listening. Cadbury has launched Trident Vitality gum, available in three varieties – Vigorate, Rejuve and Awaken. Cadbury has also introduced Stride Spark Sugarfree, enhanced with B6 and B12 vitamins. Rockstar Inc. has released Rockstar Sugar Free Energy Gum, with 80 mg of caffeine for each two-piece serving. W hether the candy in question is a lollipop, a chocolate square or bar, or a piece of gum is immaterial, says John Bruinsma. "The whole point is that it tastes great, and it's good for you." KN Plant-Based Snacks (cont. from Page 18) Plant-Based for Health – and the Environment "The vegan trend is growing, and more and more Millennials don't want to eat animal products," says Helena Lumme, Co- Founder of Hälsa, a line of oat-based drinkable yogurts manufactured in New York from imported organic Swedish oats. Hälsa boasts that it's made f rom simple, clean ingredients. "It's a lifestyle choice as well. The population, as it's getting more diverse, there are more people who are lactose- intolerant. That 's also something that increases with age — we are less and less tolerant of milk sugars as we age. So, many people want to reduce the amount of dairy products they eat, but a lot of the non-dairy yogurts include gelling agents or carrageenan. Ours does not." Made with whole-grain oats, it's fortified with probiotic and gut health bacteria, and has a suggested retail price of $2.99 for an eight-ounce bottle. Lumme and her company are betting that consumer interest in non-dairy yogurts will continue to grow. Hälsa is available in four flavors – Mango Pear, Apple Cinnamon, Strawberry and Blueberry. Made with The company now has a plain flavor yogurt in development to use as a base for smoothies, and should have it ready to release later this year or in the first quarter of 2019. Products such as non-dairy yogurt have wide appeal across all ages. HealthFocus International, a marketing and research agency based in St. Petersburg, Florida, reports that 60 percent of consumers ages 15 to 70 say they're cutting back on meat products, and 55 percent say that change is permanent. Another 22 percent say they hope the change is permanent. HealthFocus's Steven Walton says that, as manufacturers improve taste, convenience, availability and price, the segment will continue to grow. "The entry points are multiple … and core to consumer beliefs, motivations, lifestyles and interests," he says. "Opportunity for growth and new products [in plant-based foods] is strong, and we are in for an exciting time." While healthy snacks may have once meant dutifully chowing down on something flavorless and boring, that's no longer the case, says Robbie Rech, co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hope Foods, which makes hummuses. Today's snacks are not only full of flavor, he says, they're also full of all the things that consumers seek for healthy eating. Flavor is key if snack makers want to succeed in a competitive market, however. Nikki Azzara, Founder of P.S. Snacks, a line of bean-based edible cookie dough treats manufactured in Brooklyn, New York, says her company's mission is to create something familiar, by using plant-based, nutrient-dense ingredients to make a healthier alternative. "Taste has to be a factor," she says. "All this innovation shows that you can enjoy something that is plant-based, and you won't even really know the difference." P.S. Snacks has six SKUs — three flavors in either 12-ounce cartons or three-ounce individual portions "comparable to applesauce or yogurt," she says. The snacks have a suggested retail price of $7.99 for the 12-ounce cartons, and $2.69 for the three-ounce portion packs, sold in the grab- and-go cold deli counter. "People are seeing how shifting their diets to consuming more nutrient-dense products is better for their health," Azzara says. "They're also seeing that it's better for the environment." Glaser agrees with Azzara. "People are trying to add more plant-based foods to their diet — for their own health, for the welfare of animals, and for the environment," he says. "The tastiest foods are found in the snack aisle, and snack foods offer the convenience of trying something without a big commitment. Plant-based snacks open the door; they offer a gateway to trying other plant-based products." KN BY LORRIE BAUMANN FINE & RAW Chocolate Founder Daniel Sklaar can trace the inspiration that led him to start a company specializing in bean- to-bar chocolate made with sustainably sourced products, unrefined sweeteners and 100 percent organic ingredients, to a picture of a Carnegie Deli pastrami sandwich. Today, that inspiration has led him to a a redesign of his signature FINE & RAW line with new wrapper artwork and two new flavors: Cashew Nut Butter and 70% Cacao. The new line perches on the market intersection between wellness and specialty gourmet and was introduced at the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. Sklaar grew up knowing that it was his destiny to come to the United States, so when he won a green card through the American lottery process after studying finance in college in Capetown and a year of backpacking in Asia, he packed up and came straight to New York, where one of the first things he did was head to Carnegie Deli to taste that pastrami sandwich for himself. "It was life-changing. Everything I'd hoped for and more," he says. "To die for." His travels led him to Patagonia, Arizona and the Tree of Life holistic medicine center operated by Gabriel Cousens, where he joined the raw food movement and learned about raw chocolate. "It was such a phenomenal time to be involved with that movement, with the discovery of raw chocolate," he says. "It was just super fun – exploring with chocolate, living off salads and then eating cacao. You are truly bouncing off the wall. It's like caffeine but merciful. It gives the same kind of energy boost but without a drop. It was a really cool time to be in that little niche of the world." When he returned to New York, word about Sklaar's chocolate got around, and buyers for the neighborhood's specialty stores started carrying his bars. "People really got into the chocolate, and one thing led to the next," he says. "I legitimized the production and moved to a kitchen." Today's product range encompasses Sklaar's Brooklyn Bonnies line of bars, which feature artwork reminiscent of tattoo designed based on mid-20th-century pinup girls; Chunkys, which are a cross between a bar and a truffle; truffles; butters and spreads as well as the newly redesigned signature line of bars, which are now 40 percent slimmer at 4 mm thick but still weigh either 1 or 2 ounces. The line boasts the brand's richest and most complex flavor profiles to date, with two new flavors: Cashew Nut Butter, which blends house-made raw cashew butter into dark chocolate for a creamy bar with notes of caramel cookie, and 70% Cacao, which blends cacao with coconut sugar and cacao butter. KN FINE & RAW Chocolate: Chocolate to Live For

• Cover