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Produce Show Daily Thursday, October 17, 2019 4 6 A Snack Brand for Comfort and Compassion By Lorrie Baumann A snack can be more than just a small meal to stave off hunger when the mid- afternoon doldrums hit hard but there's still work to be done before dinner, says Robert Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Vegan Rob's, his brand of chips, puffs and popcorn, since 2013. Vegan Rob's snacks include Probiotic Dragon Puffs, Brussel Sprout Puffs, Probiotic Cauliflower Puffs, Turmeric Chips, Spinach & Matcha Kettle Chips and Vegan Pop. If the names sound more like "health food" than "junk food," well, that's not an accident. "We are positioned in snack foods, which is the most visible product in any situation of retail and commerce. They're very affordable grab-and-go nutrition with no preparation necessary other than opening the bag," he said. "Most peo- ple buy snacks for stress and anxiety. They don't buy them because they're hungry. We're on the forefront of creat- ing sensory snacks.... We're onto some- thing huge here. It's a whole new fron- tier of creating sensory snacks to calm people's nerves and to center them – using techniques of meditation and superfood ingredients to enhance their lives for the price of a non-GMO, gluten-free and kosher snack bag. You can finish off a bag and not feel guilty." Snack foods are currently among the top categories in retail sales of specialty foods, according to the 2019 State of the Specialty Food Industry report unveiled to the industry during the Summer Fancy Food Show. The report also noted that refrigerated and front plant-based meat alternatives were among the top 10 cate- gories with the highest dollar growth over the past year. Ehrlich has been thinking about the manifold benefits of snack foods and the psychology of crunch for more than 30 years. He founded the Pirate's Booty brand in 1986, left that behind in 2013 after the company was sold to B&G Foods, and immediately started thinking again about what drew consumers to the snack food aisles of their grocery and convenience stores and how he could make snacks that would capitalize on consumer desires for a little more crunch and flavor with a bit less salt and sugar and an ingredient deck that could wear a halo. As he looked around him at the world he saw almost 30 years after he'd begun building a brand based on puffs made of corn, rice and cheese, Ehrlich had his feelers out – he prides himself on a unique talent for sensing trends and finding ways to act on those intuitions. Corn had lost favor since it had become ubiquitous in the American food chain, but Ehrlich thought he could find another grain that could be puffed and could be produced with less water and energy than corn could claim. What's more, he could be nimble in a way that a big corporation committed to corn could not be. "We kind of had a feeling – the non-GMO, gluten free, plant-based craze was start- ing in 2012," he said. "To me, it's an everyday event to seek out new paths for food and nutrition." As he considered the spectrum of consumers who were driven by those concerns, he saw the vegans at one end, a small fringe group of consumers as sheer numbers went, but a group com- prised of passionate advocates for caus- es with emotional resonance among their peers – people who'd respond to the appeal of snack foods with righteous ingredients, real flavors and the satisfac- tion and comfort of a crunch. Veganism still carried a bit of a stigma in those days, but Ehrlich thought the times would move past that, and attitudes would soften – he decided to brand his new snack line with a name and colorful packaging that wore the title with pride: Vegan Rob's, and sell it to consumers who fancied the idea of becoming a vegan – even if only until they'd reached the bottom of their bag of snack puffs. "We're not trying to be anything but transparent in our attempt to mod- ernize the snack as a therapy tool, not just a frivolous meal replacement, but something that's much more than that for consumers," Ehrlich said. "The big companies don't seem to get it, but we do. When you buy a product, you're buying it for a reason. Sometimes it's to calm you, sometimes to make you feel important. There's a sociology to con- sumerism." Ehrlich easily embraces the contra- dictions between lofty abstraction and the concrete realities of selling snack foods in a crowded conventional market- place. He's now making his Vegan Rob's products in six plants in the U.S. and three in the U.K. and selling them around the world. Products sold in the United States are made domestically with ingre- dients sourced in the U.S., while the U.K. plants make chips and puffs for sale in Britain, the European market and else- where. He's taken the brand from the co- ops and independent natural foods stores where he started out into mainstream channels with products like the 2019 sofi Award-winning Dragon Puffs, whose fla- vor starts smoky and spicy and finishes cool. "It takes you on a journey," Ehrlich said. "Once that cool is gone, you need another bite.... Smoky's hot now." His love of that kind of contradiction is evident, too, in the Burger Puffs he launched at this year's Sweets & Snacks Expo – it's a vegan puffed snack with the flavor of a "flame-broiled" fast food burger. "You can't get any more contra- dictory than saying 'vegan' and 'burger' on the same package. The flavor makes people think about burgers and the beach, gives the mind a chance to reflect on the memories," Ehrlich said. Burger Puffs came to the Summer Fancy Food Show this year along with Vegan Rob's newest products – canned sorghum potato crisps with probiotics and vegetable seasoning and a popcorn that also offers a vegan collagen derived from sea buckthorn. For the future, Ehrlich is planning to take the Vegan Rob's brand on beyond snack foods and into other lifestyle prod- ucts that share his philosophy of human- ity, health and compassion. "We're look- ing at anything and everything. It's not just snacks that we're involved in, though they've made a nice platform. The bot- tom line is that we're fun. People are looking for fun these days and not just nutrition. "If you're grateful and humble, that's going to come back to you in so many ways, and that's what's missing in life," he said. "We try to do that here." MarDona Bulk Olive Oil & Balsamic Program MarDona has expanded its line to include a new Bulk Food Service Program, which will offer all of its olive oil prod- ucts: Pure Olive Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Grapeseed Oil and infused olive oils in one-gallon jugs and 5-gallon pails. Additionally, due to overwhelming popular demand, MarDona has included its Truffle- Infused Olive Oils – both the Black Truffle and White Truffle oils. MarDona also makes available its aged Balsamic Condimenti product line in one-gallon jugs and five-gallon pails. This line includes the MarDona Traditional Imported Balsamic and all of the compa- ny's infused fruit-flavored balsamics, such as Fig, Blood Orange, Strawberry, Raspberry, Chocolate, Coffee and much more. MarDona's fusti con- tainer program is also part of the bulk program. The fusti containers are available in 5- and 15-liter units. For more information, call 855.645.7772, email info@mardona specialtyfoods.com or go to www .mardonaspecialtyfoods.com. Nando's New PERinaise Brings Peri-Peri Flavor Home Nando's new PERinaise offers the famous flavor of the South African–born restaurant chain known for its signature PERi- PERi sauce to home cooks in condiment form, giving heat-seek- ers and sauce-lovers alike a PERi-PERi blended mayo full of fla- vor for all their dipping, spreading and mixing needs. PERinaise hit U.S. shelves this spring 2019, retailing for $3.99–$4.99 in select Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Safeway stores across the country as well as online at www.amazon.com. Ahead of the spicy flavored mayo trend for over two decades with their sig- nature PERinaise in Nando's restaurants worldwide, Nando's, now due to popular demand, has (squeeze) bottled their famous condiment in three unique flavors, includ- ing Hot PERinaise; Original PERinaise, with medium heat; and Lemon & Herb PERinaise, which has mild heat. For more information, go to www .nandosperiperi.com.