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Naturally Healthy GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2020 www.gourmetnews.com NATURALLY HEALTHY 1 3 New Options for Nutrition-Conscious Consumers BY LORRIE BAUMANN Beach House Bowls offer a healthy break- fast option for consumers who've found that some mornings don't allow time enough to make a fresh smoothie before they have to dash out the door and get to work. The bowls are a ready-to-eat, vegan and gluten-free acai smoothie in a glass jar that's sold from the grocer's refrigerator case. "That was all about bringing the juice shop experience into the home and into the grocery store," said Harrison Fugman, Part- ner, Chief Executive Officer and co- Founder of The Naked Market, the company behind Beach House Bowls. Beach House Bowls are offered in two va- rieties: each with acai, apple, banana, rasp- berry and blackberry. One of the two versions also has a Paleo granola topping, and the other has a gluten-free granola top- ping. Beach House Bowls retail for $5.99 to $7.99 each. They meet a need for the busy Millennial consumer who's health- and diet-conscious but who's also among the 53 percent of Ameri- cans who are skip- ping breakfast now and then. "We're taking an experi- ence and a product that people love and delivering it to them in an easy-to- eat, ready-to-go and tasty format," Fugman said. He and his two partners, Alex Kost and Tim Marbach, founded their company in November, 2018 and launched their Beach House Bowls in the third quarter of 2019. They followed that up with FLOCK Chicken Chips, which are wok-fried strips of chicken skin first sold on the company's website as a keto-friendly snack. The FLOCK Chicken Chips will be launching in stores in the second quarter of this year. De- livering 12 grams of protein and no added sugar in a single serv- ing, the Chicken Chips come in three flavors – Original, BBQ and Salt & Vinegar – and retail for about $3 per bag – less than a high-quality beef jerky, which ap- peals to the same health-conscious demo- graphic. Like beef jerky, Chicken Chips are high-protein, low-carbohydrate and shelf stable – chicken chips retain their quality for about six months on the grocer's shelf. Each of the two product lines are associ- ated with a charitable cause that benefits from their sales. In the case of the FLOCK Chicken Chips, a portion of revenues goes to Heifer International to donate flocks of chickens to farmers in the developing world. The Naked Market donates a por- tion of the sales from Beach House Bowls to clean up beaches through an internally developed 1+1 program and assembles the product in a northern California facility that creates jobs for people with disabili- ties. "We'll continue launching highly in- novative and healthy food brands and continue promoting a healthy, well-bal- anced and positive lifestyle, while also try- ing to make charitable giving and giving back as habitual as healthy eating," Fug- man said. For more information, visit www .flockfoods.com and www.beachhouse bowls.com. GN Bison Bites Make Inroads into Jerky Market BY MARY KUDER Bison Bites, a bison meat snack, are made from 100 percent grass-fed bison meat that comes from bison that are free-roaming and wild and are free from hormones, antibi- otics and medical intervention. The Bites are also sugar free, soy free and naturally gluten free. Bison Bites are made by Brittany Masters and Jon Sepp, co-Founders of Roam Free Ranch in Hot Springs, Montana. Roam Free Ranch is a small, fam- ily-owned, sustain- able bison ranch on which Masters and Sepp use holistic practices and a whole-animal ap- proach: any parts of the animal not used by Roam Free Ranch are sold to other ven- dors. "Our mission is the preservation of bison, the grasslands, and the ecosystem; we want [the bison] to live as close to wild as possible," Sepp said. Although he'd never lived on a ranch, Sepp began to look for ways to make his fascina- tion with bison a way of life after his mili- tary service. That fascination eventually grew into a passion for land stewardship and for restoring bison to their former na- tive roaming grounds in Montana, he said. Meanwhile, Masters had been pursuing a successful career in marketing, working as an executive for a large aviation company in Seattle. At the same time, she was develop- ing a passion for healthy eating, and she pursued and received a certificate in sports nu- trition. Eventually, the two combined their passions for land and animal welfare and healthy eating practices and began building Roam Free Ranch, a sustainable 10,000- plus acre ranch that currently hosts 150 head of bison that Sepp and Masters man- age with regenerative agriculture methods. "We measure for bio- diversity, water, soil microbiome, and soil carbon content to en- sure we are adding more back into the land than we are using," Sepp said. Bison Bites are made with only pre- mium bison meat: no domesticated pork and beef are added. "Bison Bites are the only 100 percent grass-fed bison meat snacks that are also sugar-free," Masters said. Each batch of Bison Bites is flavored with organic spices and herbs and is naturally smoked using hickory wood chips, not artificial smoke flavoring. Bison Bites are paleo-friendly and high in protein – each two- ounce package provides 24 grams of protein and zero car- bohydrates. Bison Bites come in four flavors: Wood Fired Pizza, Moroccan Heat, Thai Chili Ginger, and Original and have a shelf life of 12 months. Retailers should look for new flavors in the summer- time. "I can't tell you the names of the flavors yet, as the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Ad- ministration] has not yet ap- proved them,"Masters said. Fresh frozen meat, will also be introduced soon. A package of Bison Bites retails for $9.99. For more information, email info@goroamfree.com or visit www.goroamfree.com. GN Bella Sun Luci Launches Plant-Based Tomato Jerky Mooney Farms, producer of sun-dried tomato products and premium Mediter- ranean-inspired products, is introducing a new product to its Bella Sun Luci line-up, Plant-Based Tomato Jerky. This new vegan jerky snack is made with simple, non- GMO, gluten-free ingredients and contains 80 calories per serving. Bella Sun Luci's plant-based jerky line is non-GMO, kosher, and is a good source of fiber, iron, vitamin C, vitamin K and potas- sium. Varieties include Hickory-Smoked and Sriracha. "The vegan population is growing, and, with it, we are bringing forward-thinking foods that appeal to both vegans and non- vegans alike," said Mary Mooney, Owner of Mooney Farms. "We believe bringing sun- dried tomatoes to the snack market in this new and innovative plant-based jerky marks the start of a health trend that's here to stay. As with all of our products, we're only using the highest quality ingredients to create a snack that customers will crave without any guilt." In addition to its new jerky product, the Bella Sun Luci line includes a variety of sun-dried tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, sun-dried tomato chipotle sauce, pasta sauces, bruschetta spreads, estate- grown olive oil, risotto and marinades. Bella Sun Luci is produced by Mooney Farms, a third-generation, family-owned company based in Chico, California. To learn more about Bella Sun Luci, visit www.bellasunjuci.com. GN

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