Video: IFE World Food Innovation Awards – best snacking innovation

The best snacking innovation category at the IFE World Food Innovation Awards 2016 was packed with fantastic snack bars, vegetable crisps and dairy innovations that reflect positively on the state of the global snack foods market.

Four of the 13 nominations in this category can be described as either energy bars or snack bars – and two of them were made from insects! They include Crobar, the UK’s first energy bar made using cricket flour. Crickets are as high in protein as beef but lower in fat, producer Croprotein said, while the dairy- and gluten-free bars are available in two flavours: cacao and peanut.

There was also Jungle Bar from Crowbar Protein, a “unique snack bar that’s smack full of essential nutrients” derived from crickets – 75 in each snack bar, to be precise. The cricket flour is mixed with seeds, fruits and chocolate for a more sustainable alternative to traditional snack bar offerings.

Eat Natural’s Protein Packed bar with peanut and chocolate contains 10g of natural protein in each 45g portion – more than any other in the Eat Natural range. Made using ingredients such as soya crispies and peanuts imported from the US, it is the brand’s first ever “bar with benefits”.

And Thanks for Franks’ gluten-free granola flapjack bar taps into growing consumer interest in salted caramel as a flavour, and is made by hand using all-natural ingredients. Thanks for Franks – a previous World Food Innovation Awards finalist – packs each 55g bar full of jumbo oats, cranberries, apricots, sultanas and raisins, as well as roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

The bar was in good company, Noosa Yoghurt’s salted caramel flavour is a “truly indulgent” addition to the brand’s line of classic yogurt flavours, pairing sweet caramel and a hint of salt with Noosa’s velvety smooth yogurt.

A further five entries in this category were either bagged crisps or popcorn. They included Scott Farms Chip Company’s latest addition to its award-winning sweet potato chip range – orange, purple and white sweet potato chips; Metcalfe’s cinema sweet flavour of its Skinny popcorn range, sweetened with stevia instead of sugar; and the latest pastrami in the rye edition of Ten Acre’s hand-cooked premium crisps.

Simply 7 Snacks produces of a range of healthy and better-for-you potato crisp alternatives made using hummus, lentil, quinoa and kale. They boast clean label ingredients, zero trans fat, and an absence of both gluten and artificial colours and preservatives.

And Leighton Foods’ Chip and Dip concept is a single-serve Mexican food offering that can be enjoyed on the go, pairing 100g of tortilla chips in each box with 90g of either cheese dip or salsa medium dip.

Elsewhere, Crunchtime Nuggest from Cereal Lovers is a three-flavour range of crunchy granola packaged in resealable 60g pouches. Available in three different varieties – forest, sunshine and chocolate – they are low in sugar and healthier than existing baked granola products, providing consumers with the ideal nutritious pick-up.

Nutrilac is Arla Foods Ingredients’ whey protein solution for snack cakes, allowing bakery brands to produce a moist, soft and egg-free cake with a higher protein content, facilitating longer satiety. Arla Foods Ingredients said that Nutrilac would also help to improve the freshness, reduce the crumble and boost the volume of products.

And Applewood Nibbles from Norseland offer a bite-sized format of Applewood, the UK’s number one smoky cheese brand. Each cube of cheese “provides the same bursting flavour as the last” and the product was created to propel Applewood into the convenience and snacking sections of the cheese market, Norseland said.