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UK gut-friendly food brand Bio&Me has launched Daily Boost Fibre + Protein bars, specially developed to appeal to female consumers.

The brand said its bars were developed with women in mind – its core consumer – addressing an unmet need for snacks that combine protein and fibre while offering a ‘less male-oriented alternative’ to many protein bars currently on the market.

Jon Walsh, Bio&Me co-founder and CEO, said: “Protein is an area with significant growth potential, but historically the space has been dominated by male-oriented, sports-led brands that are heavily protein-focused, and that aren’t always great for your gut health either”.

Aiming to address this, each of Bio&Me’s 40g bars provides 9g of protein and 10 diverse plant-based ingredients, including wholegrain oats, dates, pumpkin seeds, carrots and extra virgin olive oil. They are launching in two varieties: blueberry and cocoa.

The bars contain just 5.2g (cocoa) and 6.3g (blueberry) of naturally occurring sugars. This aims to differentiate the brand among other options within the protein and snack bar market, which Bio&Me noted sometimes contain as much as 30% sugar.

The HFSS-compliant bars are vegan-friendly, gluten-free and contain no artificial ingredients, sweeteners or palm fat, appealing to those seeking more ‘natural’ and less processed options.

Bio&Me co-founder, Megan Rossi, commented: “So many protein bars on the market are laden with added sugars or non-sugar sweeteners like sucralose and stevia which the World Health Organization now cautions against, along with emulsifiers, palm fat and more – all of which are Ultra Processed Food red flags, and go against fundamental gut health principles”.

“We’ve worked hard on development to elevate the health standard of protein bars. These new bars not only deliver on protein, but also the too often forgotten about, yet equally important nutrient, fibre, sourced from a diverse range of plant ingredients.”

Rossi said the brand aims to bring the “protein:fibre” index into the spotlight, an area she studied in her PhD as being a key predictor of health outcomes as opposed to isolated nutrients.

Both variants of the new bar line will roll into Tesco stores from today (13 October), followed by Waitrose and Holland & Barrett from 23 and 20 November respectively, with an RRP of £3.35 per 3x40g multipack. Tesco will also stock single bars, priced at £1.40 per bar.