Biofach 2024: High protein content, vegan options and natural sweetness take the spotlight

16 Feb 2024 --- Vegan cookies with a high protein content were one of the stand-out innovations at Biofach this year, holistically positioned toward an overall healthy lifestyle and not pigeonholed for sports nutrition. Nutrition Insight catches up with experts from Bite Me Nutrition, Younique Foods and The Agave Sweetener Company, who share more about sweet snacking trends.

“This year, we are offering organic snacks, which are feeding into the industry of protein snacks and algae snacks. Thus far, the interest is huge in our products because the innovation is an organic snack which is protein-based, containing the pea protein,” Edo Mujkić, CEO and co-founder of Bite Me Nutrition, tells us.

“It’s quite an innovation in the production and ingredients processes because it’s not like the average protein bar. It’s tasteful, more dessert-like, and still has all these wonderful benefits of being gluten- and lactose-free, with no processed sugar. Everything today’s consumer likes in a healthy snack.”

On-the-go health
The Croatian-based start-up has developed snacks that meet the consumer demand for high amounts of protein and want on-the-go healthy options. The company was founded four years ago to address the sports market but pivoted when the market shifted its focus toward healthy lifestyle trends after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What we see on the rise is consumers are looking for healthier alternatives to conventional snacks, but the ones that fit more into the plant-based and organic portfolio are very rich with fiber, with protein and other additional benefits,” says Mujkić.

Bite Me Nutrition is available in 12 countries, particularly the Dach region covering Austria, Switzerland and Germany, with 3,000 sales points. The company is currently doing a strong scale-up of its distribution.

“The future outlook we see in several areas. We want to cover the distribution across Europe with the existing products. We also plan to launch new products by the end of the year, extending our protein portfolio and adding new products to the energy segment,” Mujkić explains.

“We are also thinking of developing new, more health-functional products and not necessarily only fitting into the snacking area. So drinks, fermented products and probably also supplements. Always with the focus on plant-based, natural products.”

Vegan, colored chocolateYounique Foods has colored chocolate protein cookies.
Younique Foods showcased its expanded range of vegan, high-protein cookies and pastel-colored chocolate-covered baked goods at Biofach. The offerings exclusively feature plant-based ingredients.

“This year, we decided to make life more colorful and develop products with different natural chocolate colors, clean ingredients, organic certified and vegan. We have yellow chocolate with turmeric, pink chocolate with strawberry, a purple one with spirulina and also a green one with matcha,” Iva Palma, CEO and founder of Younique Foods, tells us.

The cookies have a creamy filling that packs extra protein and enhances the texture and flavor. The product range is available in 20 European countries, mainly Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Portugal and Croatia.

“People are more passionate about good food and are looking for more protein in the products but always looking for a good balance in taste. However, customers are not prepared to pay high prices. They want healthy and delicious products. Our focus is, therefore, always to give good taste with natural ingredients,” Palma notes.

Younique Foods also reveals it will prioritize sugar reduction in future innovation of its baked goods.

“We see people are more aware of carbohydrates, and they want to reduce it. Reduced sugar content is something the consumer will be happy to find more of, so we’re focusing on decreasing the carbohydrates and keeping the natural ingredients,” she says.

Natural sweetness with added fiber
The Agave Sweetener Company tells us it has dedicated itself to promoting the environmentally sound footprint of agave as a viable natural alternative to sweeteners, which also contain good fiber. Agave helps reduce calorie intake, has a low glycemic index and boosts protein and fiber in products.

“We are responding to a trend where consumers and the food industry are looking for better sources of sweeteners and better sources of fibers. Companies are looking to positively impact the nutrition of the food offerings, and they are looking for better ingredients,” says Advier Moreno, sales director at The Agave Sweetener Company.The Agave Sweetener Company will expand into infant and child nutrition.

“Agave offers a very good mix of sweeteners, fructose, glucose, saccharose and inulin. When you sweeten with agave, you’re also adding probiotic fiber to the products.”

The company is based in Mexico but distributes globally, mainly in the US and Europe, its second-biggest market.

“We are doing research in terms of sustainability. When you measure the water footprint of sweeteners, you see that agave is the most sustainable sweetener in terms of the water footprint.

For example, if you compare cane sugar’s water footprint, you need about 1500 liters of water to produce 1 kg of cane sugar, whereas for agave, you only need 35 liters of water. So the difference is huge. And this is one of the best attributes of agave.

“There’s no additives, and there’s no waste. Even the fiber that remains after the process can be used for construction. We are moving to the baby food industry; we’re moving to the pharmaceutical industries and children’s nutrition,” Moreno concludes.

By Inga de Jong reporting from Biofach in Nuremberg, Germany

This feature is provided by Food Ingredients First’s sister website, Nutrition Insight.

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