Consumers are asking for a lot of bars these days. Some want bars to be a healthy, easy snack, while others demand that their bars act as a supplement to an active lifestyle. Many prefer a bar that can substitute for a meal or act as a diet aid. Either way, bar manufacturers are making products that satisfy all of these requirements, so it’s just a matter of picking which bar is right for the job.

PhotoFrost launches Cut-N-Frost Sheets, edible icing sheets made from specially blended frosting that can be used to create borders, patterns and other cake decorations.

When eating a favorite snack or bakery product, few people stop and consider all of the ingredients that give these products the taste and mouthfeel they enjoy. Consumers don’t care if the layer cake on their plate is moist because it’s made with a special flour formulation or that a gum blend makes the frosting smooth.

Company: Fullbar, LLC, Greenwood Village, Colo.
Website: www.fullbar.com
Introduced: January
Distribution: National
Suggested Retail: $5.99 to $11.99 for a 9.54-oz. box

Expanded several times, Turano Baking Co.’s Berwyn, Ill., headquarters production plant features three fully-automated makeup lines and three semi-automated lines that can produce some 200 stock-keeping units overall and generate as many as 150 types of fresh products each day. Starting out as a 2,000-sq.-ft. storefront in the early 1960s, the facility now is a 185,000-sq.-ft. dynamo of action.

Even though the temperatures outside may be striking a new high, today’s jerky and meat snack manufacturers are heating things up on their own with hot flavorings and spicy offerings.

Thanks to a plethora of new product innovations, fun packaging concepts and a host of exotic flavoring options, the bar segment maintains a prime position in the major leagues.

Nuts, trail mixes and nut-and-fruit confections offer consumers convenient, flavorful pick-me-ups, as they try to get the most out of each summer day.

Whether it’s a picnic, a ballgame, a county fair or just lounging in the sun, the state of the snack industry proves that consumers are in for one wild, fun-filled, tasty ride.

Recent popcorn introductions offer up robust flavors, healthier formulations and convenience—an amusement park of ingredients for summertime snacking.