Nearly 16,000 people arrived in Indianapolis last week for the 2024 Sweets & Snacks Expo where food giants such as Hershey, Ferrero, Conagra Brands and Mars Wrigley debuted many of their new or signature offerings.
Just steps away from these sprawling displays with large signage and individuals handing out samples were hundreds of smaller candy and snack innovators packed into tiny booths displaying their novel products to retailers, competitors and other attendees.
Some of the offerings are just a few months old. Others have been around for a few years. But the one thing manufacturers of these products have in common is they’re either looking for their big break or to further expand in a food space deluged with choices.
Here are five products that caught our attention:
Hooked on sustainable fish jerky
For Nick Mendoza, making fish jerky might seem like an unusual career path after growing up on a cattle ranch in New Mexico.
But for Mendoza, the sea has always been a part of his life, and founding Neptune Snacks in 2020 was a way the former marine scientist could directly improve ocean health and increase the availability of sustainable seafood.
“It was so clear to me that consumers are shifting toward other proteins and away from red meat while looking for ways to incorporate [fish] into their diets,” Mendoza said.
Neptune Snacks currently sells four jerky varieties from U.S. wild-caught fish: Sea salt and Juniper, as well as Spicy Cajun from Pacific Rockfish; and Cracked Pepper and Sweet Citrus Ginger from Alaska Pollock. A fifth line is scheduled for later this year.
The jerky, available in more than 2,200 stores, hits on several trends popular with consumers.
Neptune Snacks are high in protein and Omega-3 fatty acids and low in calories. The fish used to make the products can be traced back to the person and area where the Pacific Rockfish and Alaska Pollock were caught in the wild. The Seattle-based company also favors imperfect fish, including fillets that are too small to be served as a table portion in a restaurant.
With dozens of meat jerky brands on the market totaling nearly $1 billion in sales, Mendoza could have a huge market to tap into if he wanted to target these offerings. Instead, he’s focusing on meeting the appetites of people looking for more seafood.
“We don't need to, and we're not trying to convert jerky eaters to try something different,” he said. “There's enough people out there that want more fish in their diets and that's kind of our easiest access to marketing.”
Putting the pop back in popcorn
As a fan of popcorn, Dan Sobek realized he had enough.
Sobek grew frustrated that the category has been starved for innovation for years, with new offerings from big food brands like Conagra’s Angie’s Boomchickapop and Hershey’s SkinnyPop focusing predominately on some variation of cheese, sea salt or butter.
A classically trained chef who owns restaurants in San Diego, Sobek used his insight into flavors to help revitalize the stagnant popcorn space.
Last December, he launched Nomad and debuted two popcorns with food-inspired flavors: one that tastes like ramen and a second dusted with chimichurri seasoning. Three more flavors are planned in 2024, including Chili Crunch, Pad Thai and Mexican Street Corn.
“We're trying to bring something new to the market,” Sobek said. “We're trying to break something loose in the category that's never been done before.”
Nomad is tapping into popcorn’s neutral flavor profile to load up its products with generous amounts of its signature seasonings — another way Sobek said the brand is separating itself from other products already on the market where the flavor is more subdued.
Nomad will eventually move into sweeter offerings, but first it wants to launch up to seven savory products.
Even though the upstart company has only had its popcorn on the market for six months, Sobek said early tests at smaller independent grocers in California “have exceeded our expectations.” It only served to embolden his observation that consumers were looking for a flavor reboot to popcorn.
“There a big market for this, a lot of interest,” he added.
Bringing energy back to gum
With consumers frequently turning to coffee and other drinks for an energy jolt, Maax Brands has something else for consumers to chew on: gum.
The idea for the performance-enhancing Maax gum came after founder and serial entrepreneur Mariano Cuesta was driving home one evening and wanted a pick-me-up. Carrying around a cup of coffee wasn’t the most convenient, especially for going out on the town. It also didn’t provide the freshest breath.
Maax started selling its gum in late 2021 and this year added mints to the fold.
Each piece of gum has the same amount of caffeine as one and a quarter cups of coffee. The high caffeine sets it apart from similar energy gums on the market where it often takes multiple pieces to reach the same level, said Maria Cuesta, the head of marketing at Maax and Mariano’s younger sister.
Maax also includes 1 gram of sugar that helps offset the notoriously bitter taste of caffeine.
“Part of the challenge is making sure that [the gum] provides that punch but also in a way that is going to be tasty to anyone who is chewing it because no one wants to chew bitter gum and be left with that bitter breath as well,” Maria Cuesta said.
Maax gum is currently available in Spearmint, Cinnamon, Cool Mint and Tropical Mango, while the mints offer Spearmint and Peppermint. The gum can be found in roughly 100 mom-and-pop stores and online at Amazon and Walmart.
Most retail locations, Maria Cuesta said, carry it in next to other gums but a few are stocking it in the health section next to protein and other energy bars.
Maax plans to eventually expand into other products to help students, employees or people exercising get the much-needed energy jolt.
“It's a young company,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”
Sour power
Brain Smack is not afraid to talk smack.
Brain Smack, which launched six months ago to capitalize on the public’s insatiable demand for everything sour, teases consumers that “it’s not that sour” and urges them to “smack with caution.”
The product “stands out in the candy aisle, tempting both adventurous eaters and sour candy aficionados alike,” said Reena Rupani, the chief financial officer for 4 Aces Import, the Texas-based company that developed and distributes the product. “It pushes the boundaries of flavor of innovation and has you wanting to go back for more.”
While Brain Smack is not the first sour candy on the market, Rupani said it comes with one sweet difference.
For many other sour candy brands, once the sour dissipates after a few seconds, consumers are left with a sweet or decidedly unpleasant bitter aftertaste. 4 Aces conducted eight rounds of testing before settling on Brain Smack’s current flavor profile that leaves a sweeter sour flavor once the initial punch subsides.
“We’ve never seen anyone focus on the sour and actually do it well,” Rupani said.
Brain Smack currently has five sour products: Mega Brain Smother and Brain Spasm, both sour candy sprays; Brain Stun and Brain Sucker, both a brain-shaped lollipop that is dipped in a sour liquid candy; and Brain Spike, a lollipop that gets dipped in a sour candy powder. The candies come in watermelon, strawberry and blue raspberry flavors.
4 Aces is already talking about adding more products to its Brain Smack lineup.
“Everyone's kind of been going for sour,” Rupani noted. “It’s just figuring out how to do it right and making sure that we have a branding that backs it up.”
Making pickles pop
Jorge Ramos has long been a fan of pickles, beginning with cotton candy he developed in 2015 that was flavored with the popular item.
Now, the entrepreneur is tapping into the growing popularity of pickles in the U.S. and combining it with chamoy, a Mexican condiment made from dried chiles, lime juice and fruit like apricots.
In March, his company, Kids Kan Sa De Cv, debuted a sauce, paste and chili seasoning that includes pickles or pickle flavoring and chamoy. The ingredients together create “a blast of flavors in your mouth,” Ramos said, ranging from sour and sweet to spicy and salty.
The Pickle with Chamoy sauce is ideal for chips or as a substitute for ketchup or BBQ sauce on a hamburger, the seasoning as a sprinkling on beer and the paste as a candy that a person can consume with a small spoon or their finger.
“There's no turning back once you try it,” Ramos said. “It just hooks you because it's like addictive.”
Ramos first developed the formulation for these pickle products eight years ago. Despite their short time on the market, the products are already carried by grocery H-E-B in Texas and on Amazon. Candy chain It’s Sugar recently agreed to purchase them.
