Roxanne Rolando, Food Review deputy editor, and Lynn Quintino, head of marketing at Infixion Media, went to Cape Town, last week, for the Food Review/Symrise New Product Competion’s (NPC) first round of judging this year.
The judges gathered at the Foodcorp’s 7th Floor Innovation Centre in Observatory, Cape Town, to start this year’s NPC.
It was interesting to see a rise in the number of beverages entered into this year’s competition. BOS Ice Tea, Stream Drinks and Chilled Beverage’s Chelé Lite received mixed responses from the judges despite them doing well on the market.
• BOS Ice Tea, a range of organically certified rooibos ice-teas made in SA, were launched country-wide into both Pick n Pay and Woolworths
• Stream Drinks, a range of functional drinks certified by a medical practitioner, have recently been launched at Vida e Cafe’s around Cape Town and promise to deliver a refreshing and healthy beverage made in SA
• Chelé Lite has been well received by various retailers across SA since the beginning of the year
All three beverages are competing in the health drinks sector whilst Stream Drinks and BOS have also stretched themselves to encompass the growing functional beverage sector using health promoting ingredients, such as Ginkgo and rooibos, in their formulations.
On the food side this year the judges had the pleasure of trying O’Ya sweets launched in SA at the beginning of the year, Vital Health’s, Vital Superfruit Select Muesli, and Woolworth’s new range of functional snack bars including a baobab variation made with muesli, nuts and oats.
• O’Ya sweets, in various fruit flavours, boasted liquid centre fillings
• Vital Superfruit Select Muesli hopes that with its reputation for being involved in the vitamin and nutritional supplements market, its muesli will be the natural choice for a health conscious market
• Woolworth’s Functional Snack Bars have entered the market at a time when snack bars are becoming a big hit globally, such as in Japan where a bar is often considered the perfect on-the-go lunch. What really makes these bars different is the use of the specifically African ingredient, baobab. Baobab has already been seen in various Woolworth’s products, such yoghurt, but the use of this ingredient in this form is a first for SA
It was noted by all that despite the economic slump this year’s entrants look rather promising and nothing had been spared in terms of innovation.
Watch this space for more news on this year’s exciting Food Review/Symrise New Product Competition.
