From Hipchips new crisps and dips concept, to vegan macaroons and chickpea puffs, here's this week's round up some of the most on-trend European product launches.
From Hipchips new crisps and dips concept, to vegan macaroons and chickpea puffs, here's this week's round up some of the most on-trend European product launches.
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London chips & dips purveyor Hotchips is launching a range into UK retail.
The company, which operates a foodservice outlet in Old Compton Street, pairs hand-crafted chips with a selection of fresh sweet and savoury dips. From this week, the company is introducing sweet or savoury crisps and dips boxes to Sainsbury’s stores with an RRP of £4.99.
The boxes will contain a bag of hand-fried chips and three of the Soho store’s most popular dips. Consumers will be able to choose from either the Savoury Box containing crisps dusted with sea salt with a Moroccan Style Yoghurt, a Beetroot, Ginger and Chili and a Katsu dip. The sweet potion is dusted with cinnamon sugar and comes with a Salted Caramel, a Passion Fruit and a Chocolate dips. The dios can all be stored and served at ambient temperatures.
Tim Sutton, general manager of Hipchips commented: “The question I am most frequently asked is ‘when are you opening near me’, so now we are proud to be bringing the Hipchips experience to consumers across the UK.”
French start-up Funky Veggie is rolling out Boules, a salty snack based on chickpeas and “without anything wired inside”.
The range follows a year of R&D efforts in collaboration with Funky Veggie’s Instagram community, the company said.
Convinced of the benefits of a more vegetal and transparent diet, Funky Vegie offers 100% “natural and gourmet” alternatives in supermarket shelves with the aim of making “healthy eating accessible to all”.
The new line comprises of organic puffed crispy chickpea nuggets. The base is comprised of: chickpea flour, corn flour, cornmeal, rice flour and sunflower oil. Three flavours are being rolled out: curry, herbs of Provenance and tomato and basil.
Danone-owned infant food brand Cow & Gate Baby Food has launched its First Spoons range in the UK with two new, single-vegetable jars aimed at stage one weening.
The jars are suitable for babies four-to-twelve month and come in two flavours – carrots and pea.
Danone stressed that the new SKUs use “natural, steam-cooked vegetables with no artificial preservatives or colouring”.
They also contain a higher vegetable content than single-vegetable products currently sold by the market leader in the baby food category, with at least 32% more peas and 9% more carrots, Danone claimed. The Cow & Gate First Spoons Peas jars are made with 66% all-natural peas, while the First Spoons Carrot jars are made with 90% carrots. They are also gluten-free and vegan-friendly.
Sandra Eglau, marketing director for Cow & Gate, said: “While vegetables are an essential part of a healthy, varied balanced diet, science tells us little ones are predisposed to prefer sweeter flavours, such as fruit. However, through the regular introduction of vegetables at a young age, parents can help their babies learn to love them. The First Spoons carrots and peas jars are a great way to start weaning, as these veggies have a naturally-sweet taste which babies love.”
The First Spoons range is now available at Asda and will be rolled out across other grocery retailers & Boots stores nationally. Each jar is 125g and has an RRP of 65p.
Nocco, the UK functional drink start-up, is fuelling its expansion outside gym channels having secured a listing with Asda in the UK.
The company wants to capitalise on demand for on-the-go sports nutrition products. It is a carbonated beverage enriched with branched chain amino acids (BCAA). It offers options with and without caffeine and all its drinks are sugar free.
Carlotta Cattelani, marketing manager for UK & Ireland, commented: “Having further increased our UK distribution for Nocco in gyms, sport & fitness, now is the time for us to focus our efforts on expanding mainstream availability nationwide. Already available via Ocado, Amazon & WHSmith, this new partnership with Asda represents a significant development for the brand and the soft drinks category as a whole.
“The Nocco range is innovative and hugely relevant within the fitness market, but we are also paving the way for the next generation of lifestyle and sports drinks within retail, with more exciting news to come soon.”
Mic Mac Pastry, the pastry specialist established by pastry chef Bruno Laffargue, is launching a macaroon in France that is both vegan and gluten-free.
The new Vegan macaroons now have their hulls made without egg white. The recipe took more than three years to develop because eggs are a key ingredient for consistency and texture in traditional macaroon recipes. The eggs, Mic Mac revealed, have been substituted with legume protein.
Dairy in the ganache filling has been replaced with preparations based on vegetable milk or with jams, especially for raspberry and blackcurrant scents.
The company has also used natural colourings, including vegetables such as beets or carrots as well as chlorophyll or safflower. The group achieved a “nice bluish colour” using spirulina algae.
The vegan macaroons will be available in seven varieties: vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, lemon, raspberry, coffee and blackcurrant.
Packs of 6 macaroons will be priced at €11, the company revealed.
UK children’s snack group Fruit Bowl is expanding its range with the introcution of Unicorn Fruit Flakes.
Unicorn Fruit Flakes are a mixture of Fruit Bowl’s top selling flake flavours – raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant fruit flakes. They are made from “soft” and “chewy” pieces of fruit purées.
Unicorn Fruit Flakes will be available in convenience ready single packs (RRP: £0.49) as well as multipack bags (RRP: £2.00). The multipack bags will be launching into Morrisons stores in April, with a further launch into Waitrose timed in May.
The range is gluten-free, vegan and veggie friendly. It contains only naturally occurring sugars, the company added.
Alice Bream, brand manager at Fruit Bowl, commented: “Fruit Bowl are getting fully involved in embracing the current unstinting love for the unicorn trend and hope that consumers are just as excited about this product as we are. It’s a great opportunity for us to build the brand as we look forward to a number of new SKU launches for 2019 across both grocery and convenience.”
Global snacking company Pladis is shaking up its McVitie’s Digestives brand, a mainstay of UK sweet biscuits, with the launch of McVitie’s Digestives Twists.
The new variant will include two flavours: chocolate chip & caramel and chocolate chip & coconut.
“We’re thrilled to be launching a brand-new range inspired by our classic McVitie’s Digestives that will enable us to extend appeal and bring our much-loved brand to a younger audience,” said Emma Stowers, Brand Director for McVitie’s at Pladis UK and Ireland.
“We know that on-trend flavour and texture combinations, such as caramel and coconut, are helping to drive overall category growth for sweet biscuits – and we’re set to tap into this insight with our new McVitie’s Digestives Twists.”
McVitie’s Digestives Twists had strong appeal amongst younger consumers, with 80% of 18-34-year-olds praising the ‘exciting flavour combinations’, the company claimed.
