This week’s round up of new products features Made For Drink’s South African-inspired, beer-friendly biltong, made from 100% grass-fed Irish beef, while Biff’s Plant Shack has launched a range of Jackfruit products with specific air-frying instructions.
Image Getty/Talaj
This week’s round up of new products features Made For Drink’s South African-inspired, beer-friendly biltong, made from 100% grass-fed Irish beef, while Biff’s Plant Shack has launched a range of Jackfruit products with specific air-frying instructions.
Image Getty/Talaj
UK premium bar snack brand Made For Drink has launched South African-inspired, beer-friendly biltong, made from 100% grass-fed Irish beef.
Made for Drink’s Original Seasoning Biltong will launch into Waitrose stores on October 22, RSP £2.95 (30g).
Made for Drink founder Dan Featherstone said: “Our ongoing ambition is to provide our retailers with common sense trade up opportunities within the snacks category, which is why we prioritise discerning ‘me-time’ moments, specifically Thursday/Friday night with a drink. We seek to make these moments as delicious and as memorable as possible, which is why we’re always on the lookout for any gaping gaps where we can introduce real innovation and best-in-class intentions.
“Biltong is one of the world’s greatest beer-friendly snacks that has been making positive strides in the UK marketplace in recent times. We felt the moment was ripe for a best-in-class biltong made with 100% Irish grass-fed beef, which is why we approached a well-established biltong producer with proud Eastern Cape ties who’ve relocated to Northern Ireland.”
Made for Drink’s English Truffle Crisps will also debut in Waitrose on October 22, RSP £1.25 (40g).
Image supplied by Made For Drink
Multi-channel vegan brand Biff’s Plant Shack has launched its street food-inspired range, including hero Jackfruit products, into 400 Sainsbury’s stores across the UK via the retailer’s Future Brands programme.
The vegan street food brand has hit the shelves of Sainsbury’s as part of the supermarket’s Future Brands incubator programme.
The Biff’s Plant Shack range, the first retail range from the brand, which also supplies into foodservice, and operates over 40 ‘Biff’s Delivery’ kitchens on Deliveroo, launched earlier this with easy-to-cook, street food-inspired flavours, which use jackfruit as a meat alternative.
The HFSS-friendly SKUs that have launched into Sainsbury’s focus on veg-based ‘naturally naughty’ comfort food that aims to offer high quality ‘fakeaway’ experiences without a heavy reliance on soy-based alt-meats. They include Biff’s hero Crispy Fried Jackfruit Wingz, the first plant-based wings with a sugarcane ‘bone’ available in UK supermarkets, alongside their Crispy Fried Jackfruit Burgers. Both products contain at least 50% jackfruit and are hand-formed in a signature process that uses fresh fruit to create a unique chicken-style texture.
The range is completed with two complimentary sides; Smoky Chilli Cheeze Waffle Fries, made with a sweet potato-based vegan ‘cheese’ sauce and Banging Bhaji Loaded Fries, which are loaded with a rich tomato-based masala-style sauce.
The Sainsbury’s launch also includes updated cooking instructions to the Crispy Fried Jackfruit Burgers and Wingz, which will see Biff’s become one of the first brands in the UK to add air frying cook times to their retail products. This is in response to a massive 120% increase in air fryer interest in the UK year-on-year, following some recent research, released in August by energy supplier Utilita. The research revealed how cooking methods can slash power consumption, with an air fryer costing just £52 a year, a saving of £264 compared to a traditional electric oven.
Biff Bloom-Burrows, founder of Biff’s said: “Stepping into one of the UK’s ‘big 4’ is a massive achievement - the journey of Biff’s has taken from us from a literal East London street food shack in 2017, through bricks and mortar and then foodservice, but it’s always been our ambition to land here. We’re incredibly proud to join the Sainsbury’s Future Brands programme. Future Brands gives us the opportunity to reach more shoppers, and the more shoppers we reach, the better it is for our planet.
“We believe we bring something new to the aisles. We know meat-free shoppers are looking for more variety as they look to recreate their favourite dining experiences at home. With our focus on experiential, flavour-focussed plant-led innovation we’re well suited to support these rapidly changing consumer trends – such as supporting energy-conscious consumers – which our first air fryer-optimised products demonstrate.”
Image supplied by Biffs
Israel-based Redefine Meat has announced the launch of its first pork product – the New-Meat Bratwurst. The company said the Bratwurst flavour profile has been designed ‘with chefs and for chefs’ to perfectly compliment the European taste palate, particularly suited to the traditional German culinary experience. New-Meat Bratwurst is making its debut at Oktoberfest in Munich (September 17 – October 3), where the public are able to taste it for themselves at traditional Bavarian beer house Tegernseer Tal. The product will be commercially available for food service providers in Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands.
One of the early adopters of New-Meat Bratwurst, Julian Kinner, restaurant manager at Tegernseer Tal – Bräuhaus, said: “For our chefs, the versatility of the product allows them to be super creative with the menu. Oktoberfest is the perfect event to introduce the New Meat Bratwurst to the German market and we are confident that our customers will love it.”
Redefine Meat Co-Founder and CEO, Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, added: “Redefine Meat’s ability to identify the needs of the market, understand the taste palate and then produce such a diverse range of high-quality plant-based meat products, is already changing the way meat distributors, chefs and consumers think about plant-based meat, and we’re just at the beginning of this transformation.”
Image supplied by Redefine Meat
UK gourmet sausage brand K’s Wors has introduced easier-to-appreciate formats including Boerewors Style Chipolatas and Cocktails Sausages.
K’s Wors founder Dee Mapasure explained: “Over the last 12 months we’ve been inundated by requests from both retailers and end consumers to take our deliciously distinct coarse meat recipes into more every day, pre-portioned formats. Boerewors like the British Cumberland have historically been restricted in their usage occasions by their unwieldly ‘tightly coiled’ format, whilst the creation of easier-to-navigate chipolatas opens the doors to a greater number of usage occasions (baps, cooked breakfasts, toad-in-the-hole, sausage rolls, winter casseroles) for our eager-to-please boerewors.”
Image supplied by K’s Wors
Launching with five varieties, new premium drinking chocolate brand Cocoa Canopy claims it is the only UK drinking chocolate brand to use unique chocolate beads, providing an intense, smooth and superior chocolate flavour in every cup.
Cocoa Canopy’s range can be served hot or iced, made into milkshakes or mochas, or used as an ingredient in cocktails, sauces and baked goods. Five SKUs are available – Rich Dark, Smooth Milk, Salted Caramel, Milk & Dark and single origin 70% Ecuador Dark.
The full range of palm-oil free drinking chocolate is crafted with sustainably sourced cocoa and all packaging is 100% compostable, including the inner bag.
The brand added the beads are “perfect as a cocktail or dessert ingredient for mousses, souffles, ganaches and ice creams, alternatively, sprinkle onto cereal, shake into homemade bakes or stir through sweet and savoury sauces for a mouth-watering alternative to chocolate chips.”
Image supplied by Cocoa Canopy
Plant-based brand Heura has introduced its new burger via online computer game Minecraft.
With more than three million people playing Minecraft, Heura’s launch is designed to raise awareness about plant-based eating.
The new 114 gramme Heura Burger, made with pea protein, contains 22 grams of protein and claims to have 30% less saturated fat than a traditional burger.
“We wanted to find an exciting way to let people know that there are delicious, healthy and more sustainable options to enjoy your favourite foods,” said Heura CEO and co-founder Marc Coloma.
Image supplied by Heura
UK brand Popcorn Kitchen has unveiled a new “deliriously decadent” vegan Chocolate Brownie flavour.
Popcorn Kitchen said its vegan-friendly Chocolate Brownie builds on a commitment to championing small batches of hand-popped mushroom popcorn, reducing the likelihood of bottom-of-the-bag shrapnel, whilst maximising the surface area available for showcasing full-bodied flavours.
Popcorn Kitchen co-owner Andy Valentine said: “Of all the comfort foods we’ve sought to eulogize in popcorn, a vegan Chocolate Brownie has been far and away our toughest task. If working without dairy wasn’t hard enough, we also wanted a popcorn with an unparalleled, lingering chocolate intensity that was never more than 130 calories per 30g pack.”
Image supplied by Popcorn Kitchen
