Nutritional snacking bars are getting bigger and finding their way on to food shelves in the weight loss, diabetic, energy booster, breakfast snack, anytime snack sections, and in many other sections of the supermarket and other food outlets.
According to Sharon Bolel of Sharon Bolel Chemical Marketing, functional food bars are the food of the future. ‘Today’s hectic lifestyles together with the seemingly insatiable consumer demand for healthy eating options are spurring the growth of the snack bar market.’
Snack trends in the United States for 2011, identified by foodnavigator.com, see a move towards smaller but more substantial snacks that are high in protein and eaten as meal replacements. ‘In the old days, snacking was what you did when you grabbed a between-meal bite. Now snacking is literally a meal replacement,’ says foodnavigator.com’s snack trend team.
Another of the top 10 trends on its list is the increasing popularity of snacks featuring nuts, granola and fruit, within innovative flavour combinations such as cashews with pomegranate and vanilla, and dark chocolate with caramelised black walnuts.
Leading global ingredients manufacturer, Naturex, which is constantly alert to changing consumer trends through its heavy investment in R&D, has developed a comprehensive range of polyphenol antioxidants, that are ideal for inclusion in nutritional snack bars, particularly as they allow a health claim on the label, explains Bolel.
Polyphenols are a group of natural phytonutrients occurring throughout the plant world that are widely used by the body, helping it to fight oxidative stress and reduce the likelihood of health problems such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease, inflammation, skin disorders and others.
Naturex has established a specific collection of botanical extracts standardised to polyphenols; more than 50 botanical extracts have been developed through the use of highly sophisticated analytical equipment. The range covers all actives from the main to the sub classes of polyphenols. These are incorporated within the company’s NatActiv brand.
‘Polyphenols from Naturex are being incorporated in a wide selection of functional foods and beverages around the world, including in South Africa,’ says Bolel, ‘and we anticipate further growth in their incorporation into nutritional bars for a wide variety of functions.’
She added that South African consumers are showing a distinct partiality for (partial tofood bars of all descriptions and the market is likely to continue growing – most particularly because food manufacturers are making sure that snack bars, for whatever purpose, meet their customers’ first and foremost requirement that it tastes good.
