Texture emerges as a differentiator at Sweets & Snacks Expo 2024

Improvements in texture had been a break-out pattern from the Sweets & Snacks Expo 2024 hosted Might 14-16 in Indianapolis, Indiana. From freeze-dried sweet to melty baked items, texture was a key issue that firms used to create new, however acquainted departures from the established order – or, let’s say the “snackus” quo. 

In response to Mintel GNPD (shopper hyperlink solely), crunchy, clean and chewy had been the main texture claims used from Might 2019 to April 2024 by world launches of confectionery and snacks (excluding hors d’oeuvres/ canapes). 

This 12 months, firms diversified from crunchy, clean and chewy with 4 stand-out themes: freeze-dried confectionery, peelable chewy gummies, a crunchy and chewy protein snack combine, and melty-centered snack muffins.

Offering a special crunchy and crumbly consuming expertise, a number of firms on the Sweets & Snacks Expo featured freeze-dried confectionery. Some firms used conventional confectionery as the premise for his or her freeze-dried treats, akin to Bebeto Crunch It Freeze Dried Crunchy Peach Gummies and Andersen’s Loopy Sweet Freeze-Dried Peanut Brittle. 

One other model, Astro Freeze paid tribute to the historical past of freeze-dried meals as choices for astronauts with house illustrations. Astro Freeze’s out-of-this-world branding displays the resurgence in client curiosity in house predicted by Mintel’s 2023 World Meals & Drink Pattern Cosmic Comforts. 

As outlined within the Mintel Pattern Expertise is All (shopper hyperlink solely), customers crave actual, tangible experiences, particularly ones they’ll publish about on social media. Peelable fruit gummies have already gone viral in China, as reported by Mintel’s Daisy Li, Affiliate Director of China Insights, and will quickly be a worldwide viral sensation. On show on the present, Amos’ Peelerz model of gummy fruits are formed like their fruit flavors and have a peelable outer layer that’s much like the expertise of consuming the precise fruits, akin to banana and mango. 

Baked cheese model Whisps featured its new Protein Snackers, a multi-compartment bundle with crunchy cheese snacks, chewy dried fruit and salami. This mix of crunchy and chewy may attraction to the 69% of US adults who snack and say that texture influences their snack cravings. In one other differentiator for a cheese and meat snack, Whisps Protein Snackers are offered shelf-stable, priming them for on-the-go snacking.

J.M. Smucker’s Hostess model launched Meltamors snack muffins which might be a handy tackle the melty, lava heart muffins which might be widespread in eating places. Accessible in Double Chocolate and Chocolate Creamy Caramel, the snack muffins have a candy, runny filling. Shoppers can extra intently replicate the restaurant expertise by heating one cake within the microwave for 5 seconds. This heat and gooey expertise may join with the 48% of US dessert or sweet customers who agree texture is a vital a part of the general expertise of consuming desserts.

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