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Editors’ choice: Our roundup of the most innovative sweets, snacks and bakery products

The sweets, snacks, and bakery categories are an exciting area, full of fresh and innovative products which are constantly adding meaningful value to the sector.

The products below were cited during the Snacks and Bakery products Deep Dive Day, held as part of the Fi Webinar Series, and include grown-up gummies, upcycled granola, oat milk chocolate, organic chickpea puffs, and plastic free gum.

Let’s take a closer look…

Candy Kittens: Gourmies

UK sweets startup Candy Kittens recently introduced gourmies, a trio of gummies, designed for “grown up palates” said Kinga Wojcicka-Swiderska, head of content at Fi Global. According to the startup, the gummies are described as being “honestly made with next level exotic flavours made from real fruit juices”. The vegan sweets are free from artificial colours and available in the following flavours: orchard apple & dragon fruit, sweet raspberry & guava, and blood orange & pomegranate.

Agrain: Granola Berry

Danish company Circular Food Technology trades under the brand Agrain and uses upcycled spent grain sourced from organic Danish microbreweries in its products It launched a “kid-friendly” berry granola made with its stout super grain flour. The granola is made using no artificial additives.

“The upcycled flour adds flavour notes of rye and chocolate, and the company also adds some locally sourced ingredients like powdered Danish rosehip and red berries, which is quite on-trend as people look for local flavours and local sourcing. This product is meeting demands for sustainable products, it’s taking a circular economy approach,” said Niamh Michail, senior food editor at Fi Global.”

H!P Chocolate: Cookies no cream

Made from oat milk, UK chocolatier Love Cocoa’s cookies no cream is made using 41% single-origin Colombian cocoa and is described by the brand as “a deliciously creamy oat milk chocolate bar packed with crunchy cookies”. It is vegan and dairy-free.

The oat milk chocolate lineup includes: creamy original, gingerbread, salted caramel, salty pretzel, salted, cookies no cream, salted honeycomb, and white berry crunch.

“For years vegan chocolate has been limited in terms of flavour, taste, and texture. Love Cocoa is really revitalising the vegan chocolate category with the use of a trendy plant-based mylk and popular flavours already found in traditional dairy chocolate and ice-cream, making it appealing for vegans and non-vegans alike,” said Segi Adewusi, content editor at Fi Global.

Image credit: Love Cocoa

Moonpop: Curls

Curls is a brand of the Dutch healthy snack company, Moonpop. It makes crunchy veggie flips with organic puffed chickpeas using the “creamiest cheeses”. It contains 50% less fat and 80% more protein than average puffs.

It comes in two flavours – cheese and sour cream & cheese and is gluten-free, a good source of protein and fibre. The veggie flips are free from artificial colours, flavourings, and preservatives.

Nuud: Plastic free gum

UK chewing gum brand Nuud tells consumers to “chew plants, not plastic”. Conventional chewing gum can be made with a number of plastic materials using the term gum base, which contributes to plastic pollution. The startup uses chicle for its gum base as an alternative, which is also the “way chewing gum was first made hundreds of years ago” according to the company website.

“A lot of people don’t know this but chewing gum is made from plastic and I think we could start to see a growing consumer backlash or rejection of this as concerns grow over microparticles of plastic entering the human body,” said Michail.

“Nuud uses chicle for its gum, which is plant-based and derived from the sap of the sapodilla tree, native to Latin America. This brand is meeting consumer demands for both plant-based products and answering concerns over plastic by providing a natural alternative,” she added.

Product information taken from Mintel’s Global New Product Database and/or from company websites.