NPEW 2024 live: Rivalz presents nutrient-dense healthy snacks developed with AI tech
27 Mar 2024 | Rivalz Snacks
At Natural Products Expo West (NPEW), we met up with Rivalz Snacks CEO Peter Barrick, who explained how the company used AI to tackle the problems of creating healthy and tasty, better-for-you snacks. The company aims to counter malnutrition by making snacks that taste, feel and do better than currently available.
This is Yolanda Canal reporting live from Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California, on behalf of Nutrition Insights.
I'm here with the CEO of Rifles Snacks, Peter Garrett Garrett, and welcome.
Thank you for joining us.
Can I ask what innovation are you featuring at the show this year?
Oh yeah, we're featuring rival stuffed snack.
And it's next level nutrient dense food, 8 g of protein, 4 g of fiber, 9 net carbs, but most importantly, we're able to make it great tasting, and our snack at New Hope won the NextE Awards, which is a big deal.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Can you explain a little bit to us how and why you developed the snacks?
Yeah, our overall mission.
To bring great tasting, affordable nutrition to the markets worldwide with snacks that taste better, feel better, and do better.
Our goal is to roll back the 50 year pandemic of malnutrition, insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity.
And when our consumers buy our snack, every bag sold, our customers have a new lease on life.
They can live more in the moment while maximizing tomorrow.
And how did you develop the snacks themselves?
Our snack is a very complex product design.
We have subject matter experts on the R&D department and also we utilize AI to help us solve the category's hardest problem.
The category's hardest problem is how can you minimize the carbohydrate and still have a delicious snack that has the same cell structure and expansion rate as high cheap carbohydrate snacks that are pervasive in the market.
Awesome.
And can you tell us a bit how do rifle snacks compare to other better for you snacks on the market?
Yes, so rival snacks is the next evolution of snacking in the savory snack market.
You have, legacy brands that are delicious, but they're built on a foundation of empty calories, fats, salt, carbs, functional snack brands, they have better source ingredients and lifestyle certifications, but we ask the fundamental question just because you have better source ingredients, does that mean you're nutritious?
Unfortunately, the answer is no.
So we bring together actual nutrition.
8 g of protein, 4 g of fiber, 9 net carbs with 7 essential vitamins and minerals, and we combine that with great taste.
So we are truly the next evolution in the savory snack market.
And what market trends have you noticed and how do the snacks address those?
Absolutely.
We hit on a major emerging trend that's happening in the market today.
So when we did our research before starting the company back in 2022.
We found that the younger consumers are moving away from three traditional meals and they're demanding more further snacks.
Frito-Lay just came out this year 2024, and validated that thesis.
They called it the time crunch dilemma and snacking for tasty satisfaction.
And so we're in a position with our nutrient profile to give consumers what they want that hasn't been met by current products in the market today.
