SpecialtyFood.com

By Dennis Marrero

natural selections

Consumers’ desire for better-for-you snacks is translating into more interest in organic options. But organic certification alone isn’t enough to move product off the shelves. Here manufacturers and retailers detail what elevates an organic snack to a must-buy tasty treat.

Beyond the established categories such as produce and dairy, organics are also gaining a foothold in the center of the store. According to the Organic Trade Association’s 2009 Organic Industry Survey, organic snacks have grown 11 percent since 2007. This doesn’t surprise Linda Sikorski, buyer at Market Hall Foods/The Pasta Shop in Oakland and Berkeley, Calif. “[Organics are] the future,” says Sikorski. Consumers are becoming more educated about sourcing through mainstream media—including films like Food Inc. and authors such as Michael Pollan—and, explains Sikorski, they are making food choices based on this.

What is surprising is that the key to sales is not only to focus on the organic label (though clearly important with core organic consumers and sustainability shoppers), but also to highlight the traditional selling characteristics of specialty foods: great taste, focused premium branding (with sophisticated packaging) and high-quality ingredients which, in this case, are organic, all-natural and healthful.

Great Taste
It doesn’t matter if a product was harvested under the strictest organic guidelines, in order to appeal to a broad range of shoppers, it must have that “wow” factor. Sikorski explains: “If it doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t matter if it’s organic. As a specialty store, the first priority is taking in the best product in a particular group…taste being the first thing we look at.”

Organic products are becoming more like their mainstream competition in terms of product type, taste and packaging, which is helping to drive the category, explains Eric Bertheau, president of Tropical Valley Foods, a Plattsburgh, N.Y.-based organic producer and distributor of organic nuts, dried fruits and chocolate confections. But beyond mainstreaming, the demand for organic products that offer more than a certification label has enhanced creativity and innovation in the category.

Specialty cracker manufacturer, Partners, a tasteful choice company, Kent, Wash., launched its first line of certified organic crackers in 2004, says Cara Figgins, vice president. While it felt that it was important to have an organic line in the marketplace, the company’s Blue Star Farms Organic products are first and foremost artisan crackers featuring a light, crisp texture, rather than being whole grain or overly seeded crackers. The line includes Stoned Wheat, Stone Ground Rye & Flax and Ground Multigrain.

Audience-Specific Branding
A key factor in selling organic snacks to specialty buyers is stressing their premium nature rather than simply touting their organic status. Zak Zaidman, Co-CEO of Kopali Organics, Miami, Fla., producers of Supergood Superfood organic and Fair Trade snacks explains, “We deliberately created a premium line that looks ‘specialty’ to appeal to a broader audience,” he says. “We believe that given the choice, all shoppers, especially premium shoppers, would rather choose a pure and healthy option that also has a positive social and environmental impact in the world.” The Kopali Organics’ line has “appealing, stylish, impulse packaging,” says Zaidman, which highlights its artisan sourcing and small-batch production.

Organic interest in snacks is spilling over into the mass market as well, with supermarkets and wholesale stores devoting more of their inventory to these items. In 2009, Tropical Valley released the Next Organics brand of organic dried fruit snacks coated with organic dark chocolate. Interestingly, Bertheau notes that the line is simply a rebranding of some of the existing Tropical Valley Foods line, which is mostly distributed to smaller independent stores. The Next Organics brand was created to compete well in Target, Costco and Safeway with new graphics featuring bright single fruit images as well as ingredient and sustainability information.

Distinctive Ingredients
Specialty and natural shoppers, in particular, seek out a point of difference in their food choices and surprising ingredients are another key way to reach these consumers. Kopali Organics Supergood Superfood line includes chocolate snacks with exotic berries, espresso beans, bananas and cacao nibs. Other non-chocolate items include dried mango, pineapple, mulberry, a Superfood Mix and more. Zaidman says the snacks “offer an exceptional eating experience” because the fruits are fully ripened on the plant, picked by hand and dried on-site at the farm.

Bertheau explains that a key point of distinction for the Next Organics line is the ingredients. The Haitian mangoes it uses are “less beautiful and not as uniform in color, shape and size, but the flavor is where it has an edge,” says Bertheau, who describes the flavor as more intensely mango with greater sweetness overall. The company also promotes the 70 percent cacao chocolate it uses in these products.

Strong Nutritional Credibility
A key motivator towards organic foods is, of course, the belief among some shoppers that they are getting better-for-you ingredients. Highlighting a product’s nutritional benefits is important in driving sales.

Organic Falafel Chips™ from Flamous Brands, Inc., San Gabriel, Calif., are made with GMO-free corn, garbanzo beans, 15 organic vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices and are high in fiber and protein. Jesse Chehayeb, COO, says that the company wanted to create a distinctive product that met the “healthy-tasty challenge.” “We know if something is healthy but not tasty, it may be dead in the water,” he says.

This balance is important for customers at Market Hall Foods and The Pasta Shop, notes Sikorski. “People are trying to eat healthier and they are concerned about what they’re ingesting,” she says. One category that she highlights is nut mixes, especially with almonds and dried berries.

Mark Devencenzi, national sales director for Pejaro, Calif.-based SunRidge Farms, a natural and organic food manufacturer of more than 1,000 bulk and packaged snacks, says almonds—both the original Organic and Tamari Roasted flavors—are tremendous sellers. The company’s Organic Cranberry Harvest trail mix with organic chocolate chips is another popular item in its inventory of more than 200 certified organic products.

Innovation is key, says Devencenzi, noting that the company was one of the first producers of organic trail mixes and continues to stay ahead of the trends with Organic Sunny Worms, which are similar to gummy worms, but made from organic pectin instead of gelatin and are fortified with vitamins A, C, D and E.

While great marketing and packaging is critical for organic snacks to get noticed in a crowded marketplace, it’s important to not get caught up in the hype. The organic shopper is a special breed of consumer, one who is invested in knowledge and product integrity and less susceptible to huge brand names who have found the positioning benefit of organics. The success and credibility of the category will continue to be grounded in the farmers, suppliers and retailers who are truly committed to organics and who lead the way in quality, nutrition and innovation. |SFM|

Dennis Marrero is associate editor of Specialty Food Magazine.