Today’s snack and bakery market remains as fiercely competitive as ever. The definition of what constitutes a “snack” is tracking an evolutionary course, shifting in step with consumer trends and desires.
As the whole and ancient grain wave continues to surge, chefs and product developers alike are pushing the envelope on the next evolution of breakfast, baked goods, appetizers and snacks.
A friend once told me that she wouldn’t be impressed by technology until she could download a snack. Although we are not quite at the level of the Jetsons, the snacking trend continues to grow.
The 2017 American Bakers Association (ABA) Convention featured our most thought-provoking and provocative program yet, centered around the enormous disruptions impacting the baking industry.
The brand-new Enjoy Life Foods bakery, located in Jeffersonville, IN, is a sight to behold. After acquiring Enjoy Life in 2015, Mondelez International showed its commitment to growing the brand by investing in construction of the state-of-the-art bakery, thereby giving the allergen-free brand the resources and positioning it needs to significantly grow its global presence.
After centuries of bread baking it is difficult to find or uncover a “new” ingredient or technique. However, American innovation and the local grain movement have provided a revived opportunity to explore the baker’s staple, grain, in the sprouted version.
According to FDA, more than 160 foods can cause allergic reactions in people with food allergies. In the U.S., federal regulatory bodies identify eight most-common allergenic foods, which FDA says account for 90 percent of allergic reactions related to food.
Over time, select trends across food emerge, rise to prominence and then grow fully intertwined into the fabric of the industry itself. Such is the case with “better-for-you,” a term that has grown to encompass any product that has some level of nutritional improvement over a “traditional” version of the very same product.