This week's launches take in Nestlé's revamped Garden Gourmet launch in the UK; Wholey Moley's ‘cookies with benefits’, and Aunt Bessie's ‘crispiest’ and ‘fluffiest’ roast potatoes yet.
This week's launches take in Nestlé's revamped Garden Gourmet launch in the UK; Wholey Moley's ‘cookies with benefits’, and Aunt Bessie's ‘crispiest’ and ‘fluffiest’ roast potatoes yet.
Image: Getty/Monty Rakusen
After pulling the brand from shelves in 2019, Nestlé is bringing Garden Gourmet back to UK supermarkets. The company said the new Garden Gourmet Sensational range has the 'meatiest' flavour and a juicier than ever texture.
Nestlé said the new range is made with high quality ingredients, including responsibly sourced soya beans, and offers a healthy and versatile choice of vegan products for food lovers looking to cut down on meat but not wanting to compromise on taste.
Honza Dusanek, Managing Director for Food and Dairy at Nestlé UK and Ireland said:
"With more and more people looking for great-tasting, more sustainable plant-based food, we are very excited to bring the Garden Gourmet range to UK supermarkets with our tastiest and juiciest Sensational range.
"We want people to fall in love with plant-based eating at first bite which is why we have worked hard to deliver even more meat-like flavour and texture to satisfy even the most discerning of taste buds.
"Our aim is to make plant-based food an easier and more attractive choice for people who want food that is good for them and good for the planet so our new Garden Gourmet range will be offered at good value to help consumers enjoy it week in, week out."
The range initially includes four products: a burger, mince, Cumberland-style sausages and Mediterranean-style fillet pieces.
Garden Gourmet has already been available in the UK to caterers and food service industry through Nestlé Professional. Subway UK uses Garden Gourmet brand as the sole provider of vegan 'meatballs' in the 'Meatless Meatball Marinara', which is available in Subway stores across the UK.
Image supplied by Nestlé
Spanish plant-based meat start-up Heura has introduced two new vegan pork products: sausage and chorizo.
The new meat-free sausage and chorizo are the company’s first foray into vegan pork.
The gluten-free products are rich in protein, fiber, and vitamin B12, the company said, and have a lower fat content.
Heura’s vegan sausage contains 40 percent less fat and saturated fat compared to animal-based counterparts. It also has 32 percent less fat and 66 percent less saturated fat than other vegan competitors, the company claimed.
Heura added that its plant-based chorizo has 60 percent less fat than meat and competitor versions, and 80 percent less saturated fat than animal meat.
Image supplied by Huera
UK kefir brand Biotiful has launched what it claims is the world’s first range of plant-based oat kefir drinks. Created in response to increasing demand for both gut health and plant-based products, the range, which is available in three flavours: original, mango and strawberry (RRP: £1.85 / 250ml) offers all the key health benefits of traditional Kefir, just without the dairy, the company said.
Each 250ml bottle contains billions of live cultures as well as vitamins B12 and B2 to help support your immunity, it added.
Founder Natasha Bowes said: “We are thrilled to be bringing our expertise to the new category of the highest consumer relevance, adding depth to our strategic product portfolio with a dairy free alternative. Kefir is traditionally a cultured milk drink, but for the first time ever we are offering this authentic product made with the trusted and sustainable oat base. We know that consumers are actively seeking delicious plant-based products and want added benefits, especially gut health & immunity support, and we are best placed to lead the market in this highly relevant space.”
Image supplied by Biotiful
UK brand No Guilt Bakes, which makes low carb and keto treats, has introduced a new range of Mug Mixes. The collection comes in three flavours: a Sublime Chocolate (4 net carbs per serving), a lightly spiced Carrot & a deliciously debonair Caramel (both 3 net carbs per serving)
No Guilt Bakes co-founder, Taeya Abdel-Majeed, said: “We’re convinced that the last few years working at home has given growing numbers of workers a new-found appreciation of small permissible treats, managing one’s dietary needs and recognizing that great taste and healthier living aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive goals. Our young business’s ‘minimum effort, maximum joy’ mantra meant we wanted to trial the perfect self-contained, ‘me-time’ cake moment for any desk-bound worker who might not have access to a well-stocked canteen or a healthier living vending machine, but could find his or her way to a microwave and a fridge full of milk.’
Born back in Autumn 2020, The No Guilt Bakes portfolio now consists of keto-friendly bread, pizza base, waffle and pancake mixes, in addition to its 7-strong ‘hero’ range of cake bites currently available in: Lemon & Coconut, Raspberry Bakewell, Chocolate, Cinnamon Swirl, Chocolate Hazelnut, Chocolate Salted Caramel and Lemon Poppy Seed.
Image supplied by No Guilt Bakes
This October, The Simple Root will launch its range of plant-based sauces and dips in the UK. The Simple Root said its products are made with a proprietary ingredient base of simple root vegetables and other plant-based ingredients including fruits, veggies, herbs and spices.
The Simple Root range will expand over time to include delicious Plant-Based Cheese & Dairy Alternative products, Snacks, Cooking & Meal Solutions. Innovation pipeline categories include beverage and indulgent desserts.
First to launch in October 2021 will be a range of versatile cooking sauces, including dairy free Pesto & Parmesan Style pasta sauce, (containing over 70% less fat that regular pesto) and dips, including Roasted Garlic & Herb.
The Simple Root range was developed using innovative technology that transforms potatoes and other root vegetables including parsnips and sweet potato into versatile base products for multiple flavour skews. The dips and sauces are high in fibre through the use of chicory root, thus increasing gut-friendly qualities, and are fully compliant with government HFSS guidelines.
The selection of sauces will include:
- Truffle & Cheese style
- Bechamel style
- Satay style
- Pesto and Parmesan Style pasta sauce
The Simple Root will debut its collection of innovative dips with a range of on trend flavour skews:
- Piquante Jalapeno
- Smoky Chipotle Nacho
- Roasted Garlic & Herb
Lora Spizzirri, Global Chief Technology Officer said: “Our patented technology truly delivers a creamy and smooth ingredient base so we can create dairy and nut free versions of consumers favourite foods, like cheese spreads and creamy dips, making it easy for them to easily upgrade their food choices, but with no sacrifice to taste or texture.”
Ahead of the busy Autumn and Winter period, Aunt Bessie’s has revamped its frozen roast potatoes range. At the core of the refresh is a new recipe that has allowed the brand to claim these are the ‘crispiest’ & ‘fluffiest’ Aunt Bessie’s roast potatoes yet, according to consumers involved in testing. The new recipe will be accompanied by updated packaging, both of which will roll out on core roast potato products from mid-September.
Andy Dale, Senior Brand Manager for Aunt Bessie’s, said: “We know how important cooking a roast dinner can be to show loved ones that we care. Aunt Bessie’s has been synonymous with roast dinners for many generations, as shown by 22% of roast dinner shoppers who only buy into Aunt Bessie’s, so we know our shoppers have high expectations when it comes to our products. Our new and improved roast potatoes are the fluffiest and crispiest we’ve created to date – this isn’t just our view, but the thoughts of consumers too, after testing revealed the new recipe to have significantly higher preference scores versus competing variants.”
Image supplied by Aunt Bessie’s
Wholey Moly, which makes ‘cookies with benefits’, has added a Pistachio & Lemon version to its range of ‘healthier cookies’ with 50% less sugar.
Today Brits continue to buy a staggering £8m worth of biscuits each and every day, which helps explain how the UK continues to enjoy the highest per capita biscuit consumption in the world, the company said, with healthier-leaning biscuits now accounting for a staggering 26% of the UK biscuit market.
Having recently upped the indulgence ante of its Orange and Hazelnut lines by swapping out cacao for dark choc chips, co-founder Meenesh Mistry said he wanted a third ‘hero’ flavour. “Having already championed hazelnuts, almonds and cashews in our recipes, we wanted to provide a fitting stage for the sublime pistachio to shine, coupled with lemon to provide a discreet yet delightfully citrus twang.”
Besides the arrival of a new Pistachio Lemon offering, Wholey Moly has enhanced its recipes to create a less crumbly, more soft-centred cookie, raised essential additional investment to build its DTC/online channel and moved to recyclable paper packaging.
Co-founder Meenesh Mistry said: “The last 12 months have been a whirlwind for us as we fine-tuned our 4-strong range to be the at the very top of its game, from both a taste and healthier living perspective, without ever compromising our core ‘indulgent fun’ persona.”
Image supplied by Wholey Moly
