Multimedia munchies: the latest digital highlights from SF&WB

Slip on your headphones and catch recent videos and podcasts featuring industry experts.

Photo: Barthy Bonhomme/Pexels

If you’re a loyal reader of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery and its microsite, Candy Industry, know how snackandbakery.com is a great place to get a load of the latest new product releases, enjoy interviews with experts from across the industry, and read about current and emerging trends. Below find just a few of the recent multimedia highlights from both publications.

VIDEOS

New Product Highlights: Each month, Senior Editor Liz Parker and Chief Editor Jenni Spinner sit down together (via Zoom) and discuss the brightest spots among recent snack and bakery product introductions. These chosen products aren’t necessarily the tastiest or most likely to appear in their carts; instead, these are the items that are the most innovative, interesting, or otherwise noteworthy. Review their picks for October 2023 here; and watch their discussion for September highlights here. Then, keep an eye out for the November picks video, coming soon.

Brad Cocklin, Chunk Nibbles: The Michigan New Snack Food Competition is a fierce contest among the state’s snack producers. Each year, judges pick a handful of winners in different categories, with votes going to those deemed the most innovative, and the most delicious. Multimedia Specialist Brett Parker discussed the contest with Cocklin, whose Apple Cinnamon Chunk Mibbles took top honors in the Crunchy Cravings category. View part 1 of the interview here, then play the second part of the interview here.

Jeff Greenwald, CandyRific and Hilco: CandyRific and Hilco are known for their whimsical novelty candy products. Liz Parker, Candy Industry senior editor, connected with Greenwald to discuss the company’s line of fun products, current and emerging trends in the category, movie-themed product partnerships, and more. Eavesdrop on the conversation here.

PODCASTS

Dana Rodio, Nassau Candy: As director of brand strategy at Nassau, Rodio has a unique perspective on the gummies category, including what consumers are looking for in the category, how the field has evolved over the years, and how the candy maker keeps a finger on the category’s pulse and adapts to consumer trends. Senior Editor Liz Parker discusses it all with Rodio on the Confectionery Conversations podcast, which you can listen to here.

Andrew Hunter, Kikkoman: Soy sauce is an ingredient familiar to most Americans; nearly every household in the U.S. has a bottle or a stash of leftover packets from food deliveries, which they dash onto various Asian-leaning dishes. However, as Chef Hunter points out, the taste and mouthfeel of soy sauce make it a lot more versatile than most people realize. Listen to his conversation on the Ingrained Insights podcast to find out how it can be used in snack and bakery products, and the advantages of traditionally brewed soy sauce.

Jenni Spinner is the chief editor of Snack Food and Wholesale with more than 25 years of experience in business-to-business communications. She has written extensively about food production, safety and packaging; pharmaceutical drug development; concrete and masonry construction; and more. She holds a Bachelor’s in Communications from the University of Illinois. Jenni can be reached at spinnerj@bnpmedia.com.

This webinar will examine variables factoring into nutritionally improved candy sales, including ingredients, label claims, and alternative sugars. Better-for-you options remain top of mind for consumers who are searching for indulgences, but in a healthier format.