Whole Foods Market will debut a new ice cream flavor, Almondmilk Birthday Blondie, next year, reports Food Business News. The flavor was chosen by consumers, who had the chance to vote on their favorite of four flavors, including Frosted Animal Cookies, Midnight Double Feature Trail Mix, and non-dairy Cherry Chocolate Brownie.
“We determined the top four options through research, studying trends, and following our consumers' ice cream preferences,” said Rachel Bukowski, team leader of product development at Whole Foods Market. “We also derived some inspiration from some of our iconic exclusive brands products, like our 365 by Whole Foods Market Frosted Animal Cookies and 365 by Whole Foods Market Double Feature Trail Mix.”
“While there are a lot of key considerations for a new flavor, one of the biggest considerations is ensuring you have a delicious base for your ice cream,” Bukowski continued. “We have a custom base for our ice creams that we developed hand in hand with our product development team, ice cream supplier and one of our third-party flavor houses. The base is totally unique to our Whole Foods Market exclusive brands and is basically the ‘starter’ for all of our yummy ice cream flavors.”
Bukowski said the company also is keeping an eye on several trends in the ice cream space beyond cleaner labels, including boozy ice cream, adding fruit and vegetable content for specialized diets, and functional ingredients like prebiotics, probiotics, turmeric, and spirulina.
“The non-dairy plant-based trend is not going anywhere, and we are always on the lookout for exciting new non-dairy bases like oat milk, avocado and tahini,” she said. Full Story
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Image: Whole Foods Market