2021 Snack Trends Are Looking Healthy and Upcycled
Source：Food Processing Magazine
From：Taiwan Trade Center, New York
Update Time：2021/04/10
When Kaitlin Mogentale was creating Pulp Pantry, which makes snacks from vegetable byproducts, she was motivated by more than just profiting from food waste. What drove the idea, she says, was the hope of creating a product that tasted good, was naturally healthy and helped the environment.
“Exploring the relationship between food, health and environment became one of my greatest passions,” Mogentale says.
Pulp Pantry, which launched in 2015, now offers four varieties of Pulp Chips. About half of the ingredients are “upcycled” vegetable byproducts like fiber from kale and celery. The chips are gluten-free, vegan and contain 5g of fiber and 150 calories per serving.
Pulp Chips illuminate two key trends in snack foods: They are more nutritious than many typical snacks and they offer consumers a feel-good story of salvaging food that otherwise would to go waste.
“There’s nothing better than keeping nutritious food out of landfills, and into people’s mouths,” Mogentale says.
Driven by COVID
The COVID crisis has impacted snack food trends in two ways - more time at home means more snacking, and a worldwide pandemic means health is top of mind.
“Interest in snacking has increased due to the pandemic, as has public interest in health,” says Bill Glaser, CEO of Outstanding Foods, a manufacturer of gluten-free, vegan and kosher snack chips. “Consumers want their snack foods to evolve with their diet.
"We were able to raise $10 million this year due to the interest in plant-based snacking, and we don’t foresee this trend changing anytime soon," he continues. "Consumers are choosing healthier options at the bodega or the 7-Eleven, and the snack food industry has noticed.”
Source: https://www.foodprocessing.com/