UK retail giant launches its first private label baby food range while meat giant Zwanenberg enters the vegetarian market with plant-based versions of Dutch specialities, such as smoked liver sausage. This is our pick of the most interesting recent launches.
UK retailer Tesco has launched its own private label range of baby food. The 15-product range is includes a variety of formats such as pouches, ready meal trays and rice cakes, and will be available in over 700 stores.
Prices start at 45 p for a 70 g pouch of Carrot Baby Food Pouch.
All products have no added salt or sugar, are free from artificial colours and flavourings, and contain at least 45% veg in all of the meals.
Aimed at infants from aged six months and upwards, the products are inspired by classics dishes, such as spaghetti Bolognese pouches and cottage pie.
Sinead Bell, category director for baby, beauty and toiletries at Tesco, said the recipes were developed with experts and nutritionists “to help babies on their journey of discovering exciting new tastes and textures”.
“Our organic range of pouches, trays and snacking encourages the experience, enjoyment and exploration of food with health, taste and quality at the heart of every recipe,” she added.
Dutch meat manufacturer Zwanenberg has launched a range of vegan products under its Kips brand.
The four-product range includes vegetarian liver sausage, pate, smoked liver sausage and American filet.
“Kips is so far mainly known for liver sausage and, for a number of years, also for other meat products, snacks and meat products. The choice to add vegetarian products to it now is motivated by changing consumer habits,” it said.
The products will be rolled out exclusively in Dutch retailer Albert Heijn for the first year, it said.
Commenting on the release, Jo-Anne van der Laan said: "We have observed for a long time that the consumption of meat is declining slightly each year. Flexitarians choose not to eat meat at times. We are responding to this by now also bringing vega products under the Kips brand.
“In doing so, we aim for a broad target group; also vegetarians and vegans, because there are no animal proteins in these new Kips products.”
The products bear the European Vegetarian Society’s yellow logo.
UK-headquartered ScandiKitchen has launched a collection of premium jams available in three flavours: Wild Cloudberry, Wild Lingonberry and Wild Bilberry flavours
The jams are produced in Sweden and are made with “hand foraged berries”, the company said.
Each product contains 55% berries and can be used in both sweet and savoury applications such as “upgraded cheeseboards” or better breakfasts”.
“Cloudberries are known as Arctic gold as they cannot be cultivated and grow incredibly sparsely throughout the north of the Arctic circle,” the company said.
“Huge care is taken when foraging for these golden berries which are then crafted into a truly unique jam with umami undertones. This versatile jam can stand up-to strong cheeses and is moreish heated up and poured over vanilla ice cream.”
The products are available on ScandiKitchen’s own e-commerce platform and Ocado.
Indicating the importance of brand licencing for snack brands, UK popcorn manufacturer Metcalfe’s has launched two new sharing bag size formats, both of which will carry the Disney Kitchen logo and banner.
The packs also feature characters from Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2.
Both products are available in Sweet ‘n’ Salt and Cinema Sweet flavours, which contain 96 calories per serving.
The company said the products mark the beginning of a whole range of Disney Kitchen range by Metcalfe’s, with additional releases scheduled to be rolled out in 2019.
Sam Garnham, senior brand manager at Metcalfe’s said that launching the product under the Disney Kitchen banner “made perfect sense to us given our mutual brand vision, plus the label will be identifiable and useful for retailers and shoppers in the aisles”.
Express chips
Canadian frozen chip manufacturer McCain has teamed up with French celebrity chef Adel Dakkar to expand its range of Just au Four in France.
The new product, Just au Four Express, can be cooked in the oven in seven minutes.
The product has a recommended retail price of €2.19 for a 500 g pack. It also scores a green B on France’s official but voluntary nutrition logo, the NutriScore.
A 100 g serving provides 8 g of fat.
UK snack bar company Squirrel Sisters have rebranded their range of healthy snack bars with a new packaging design.
Founders of the company, Gracie and Sophie Tyrrell, teamed up with UK-based design agency Design Bridge for the new design, which took a year to finalise.
“We wanted to refresh our brand so it was more aligned with our personality and brand values,” they said.
The bars are raw and gluten-free, and fit a paleo diet. Available in four flavours - Cacao Brownie, Cacao Orange, Raspberry Ripple and Coconut Cashew – each bar is split into two pieces for healthier snacking, the company says.
The bars have retail listings in Waitrose, Morrisons, Ocado and Whole Foods.
Mars is gearing up for the festive period with its Celebrations confectionery brand by offering consumers the chance to personalise their sweets.
Available in France on 16 different packaging formats, such as a classic or magnum-sized Champagne bottle, a star, treasure chest and diamond.
“In just a few clicks, order your personalised labels for the people of your choice and bring the desired personal touch,’ it says. “After purchasing your favourite products, go to the dedicated platform, choose the first name or message you want to send, get your free tags and presto, you're done: the gifts for your loved ones are ready.”
