Gluten has become Public Enemy Number One. Countless people follow a gluten-free diet, and just about everyone knows someone avoiding foods made with the gluten-containing grains wheat, rye and barley

As demand for gluten-free products continues to increase, more manufacturers are entering this niche market, developing a wide range of products in various categories. 

August marked the completion of the gluten-free labeling rule development process. Published in August 2013 by FDA, the final rule put parameters around the voluntary use of the terms “gluten-free,” “free of gluten,” “no gluten” and “without gluten” on food labels.

According to the January 2015 “Gluten-Free Foods in the U.S., 5th Edition” report from Packaged Facts, Rockville, MD, from 2009–2014, sales of gluten-free products in grain-based categories posted a 34 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Product recalls in bakery and snack categories have remained consistent over the years, with undeclared allergens the primary cause. These costly recalls are preventable!

Gluten-free. Dairy-free. Nut-free. Peanut-free. Allergen-free. The food marketplace increasingly features such claims on product labels, but what do they mean? Do regulatory agencies police use of such terms?

The number of gluten-free products that have entered the market in recent years is quite large—almost mind-boggling. To some degree, this trend was fostered by FDA’s relatively new rule, Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods (August 2013), which allows manufacturers of foods inherently gluten-free to make such label claims. Thus, we now have gluten-free tomato sauce, a product that was probably always gluten-free.

The debut of Chips Ahoy! Gluten Free cookies comes on the heels of the brand’s MMMproved Chips Ahoy! Original recipe debut, which brought an improved taste to the chocolate chip cookie.

The launch capitalizes on rising trends in brownie consumption and gluten-free treats.

Love + Chew, the mom-owned, plant-based protein cookie company, is unveiling a limited-edition product in early August: its Pumpkin Chip cookie.

Pop culture-infused humor, vibrant design, and a catchy Mariachi riff bridge brand awareness from protein bars into savory snacks.

The company’s goal was to create a treat with the same appearance, taste, and texture profile as its original brownie recipe.

Stellar Snacks recently debuted grain-free pretzels crafted with superfood ingredients, now officially available at select grocery stores throughout the U.S.

Sweet Diplomacy now has a brick-and-mortar location in Los Altos, CA, a commercial kitchen in Boulder, CO, and an online menu shipping across the U.S.

Wildgrain partners with local artisanal bakers to bring fresh sourdough breads, pastries, and pastas directly to consumers' doors.

Once Again Nut Butter is bringing new stand-alone cinnamon, honey, and chocolate graham crackers to market.

The new addition to the Myna Snacks lineup is made with real cheese and Italian herbs and seasonings that deliver the taste of pizza in a convenient, crispy, nutritious format.

Schär’s gluten-free Speculoos cookies and Panettone offer options for gluten-free holiday celebrations.

The new gluten-free offerings can meal options for consumers with food sensitivities at Publix stores nationwide.

From humble beginnings 40+ years ago in a small bakery near Boston to a 30,000-sq.-ft. plant today in Chelsea, Mass., outfitted with four production lines, Golden Cannoli Shells Inc. now generates more than 100,000 cannoli shells each day. The more spacious plant is also allowing the bakery to significantly increase its capacity.

Located in Orem, Utah, Janey Lou’s exemplifies the state’s moniker—the Beehive State. Growing demand for the company’s scrumptious cinnamon rolls, generously-sized cookies, handmade Crispy Treats and numerous frozen dough products is keeping its management team and employees busy as bees.

Family-owned Ballreich Bros., Tiffin, Ohio, has a large fan base that pines for its various potato chips as well as crispy new shoestring potato sticks, popcorn, pretzels and other snacks. 

Ballreich Bros.’ 75,000-sq.-ft. potato chip and snack plant churns out 2,000-5,000 lb. of product an hour. Manufacturing product on a just-in-time basis, the family owned and operated company in Tiffin, Ohio, also produces new Sweet Potato Chips and shoestring Potato Sticks in three flavors.

It’s Celiac Awareness month, so we explore Enjoy Life Foods, the first bakery to gain gluten-free certification from the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO). In business 12 years, Enjoy Life’s mission is to make great-tasting, allergy-free, gluten-free cookies, bars and grab-and-go foods that nearly everyone can ‘eat freely’ without worry.

Enjoy Life Foods’ cookies, snack bars, chips, cereals, granolas and trail mixes are made in an allergen-free, gluten-free facility, and the company’s 40,050-sq.-ft. production plant is bulging at the seams to accommodate growing demand for its products. Enjoy Life is expanding at such a rapid pace, it may need to add a facility or relocate to a larger one. 

The bread market is changing, with fluctuating commodity prices, a still-sluggish economy, consolidations, mergers and buyouts. 

Using advanced technology, a cross-functional operational strategy and effective collaboration tools, Blue Diamond’s ‘dream plant,’ a multimillion-dollar almond-processing facility in Turlock, CA, is a reality. The nearly 200,000-sq.-ft. site sets new standards of excellence for food safety, processing and building innovation. 

Packaging enhancements, a twist on shapes and ingredients and many new flavor combinations continue to win over consumers. 

Savings-savvy Capistrano’s Bakery combined two small baking operations and renovated a larger, 38,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Phoenix that features a used, multizone, traveling-tray oven it had rebuilt with state-of-the-art features. 

Although the James Skinner Baking Co., Omaha, NE, maintains a highly diversified bakery business, its core ethos stems from the elegant, deceptively simple notion of 100 layers.

Independent—and rapidly growing—Canyon Bakehouse has set high standards for gluten-free as it strives toward baking only ‘best-to-market’ products.

As more consumers scrutinize ingredients in the foods they buy, bakers and snack producers are turning to inclusions to create better-for-you products that deliver irresistible taste.

Company: Krispy Kreme, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Website: www.krispykreme.com
Introduced: November 2011
Distribution: National
Suggested Retail: $1.09 for a 4-oz. package of Glazed Chocolate Pie; $4.29 for a 14.9-oz. box of Dipped Cake

According to the website, ideafinder.com, we consume more than 4.3 billion lb. of snack food a year, which could be why snacks may soon end up becoming America’s favorite meal.

Busy lifestyles and affordability aren’t the only reasons why consumers add frozen baked goods to their shopping cart each week.

From flavors to popular culture, what’s hot and cool are what drives new products from the Battle Creek, Mich.-based company.

Harris Interactive recently released the results of its 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend study, which analyzed the responses of more than 38,500 consumers on key measures of brand health for more than 1,500 lifestyle, product and service brands. When questioned about the brands they are likely to reach for when craving a salty snack, respondents chose Lay’s Potato Chips—the top-ranked salty snack for the past eight years—followed by two other Frito-Lay North America brands, Doritos and Tostitos.

Pretzels have been around for more than a thousand years, originating in southern Europe around 610 A.D., according to historians. Today, crispy, hard pretzels are consumed by people in many of the countries represented at the 2012 Olympics.

When it comes to the Olympics, most people prefer some sports over others. The same holds true for consumers when it comes to snack foods.

Low in calories, high in fiber—popcorn may just be the perfect natural snack. Of course, that doesn’t stop manufacturers from trying to up the ante by enhancing all the whole grain has to offer. Now, popcorn can be found competing with chips, pretzels and even candy in the snacking Olympics.

Pork rinds are probably the most misunderstood item in the snack category. This is surprising, because people have been eating pork rinds—also called pork skins—as long as they have been eating pigs. One of the world’s first snack foods created thousands of years ago, and favored in the southern states, pork rinds are a simple combination of fried pork skins and salt.

Phoenix-based Inventure Foods expands its portfolio of brands by entering into a licensing agreement with Vidalia Brands of Glennville, Ga., to develop new snack line.

Bakery products are evolving all the time in today’s market. To win the race, they mix healthful and tasty ingredients with a scoop of distinction.

Flowers Foods’ latest addition to its product portfolio—Mrs. Freshley’s Cinnamon Coffee Cakes—is sure to please cinnamon lovers.

In the wake of strong demand for Donkey Chips, the company needed new equipment to significantly increase production of its line of tortilla chips. Here's how they did it.

The flexibility to produce different flavors, shapes, sizes and types of products is high on the list of qualities that snack and bakery makers are seeking from manufacturers offering griddle equipment and fryers.

Heat and Control delivers another 2-Stage French Fry fryer system out of its Hayward, USA manufacturing facility to make batter coated French fries.

Heat and Control, Inc., an equipment manufacturer and food processing industry supplier, recently released the OilSaver Filtration System to its Oil Management System lineup.

ONE Brands is bringing Reese's peanut butter flavor to the protein bar aisle with the debut of its new Reese's Peanut Butter Lovers flavor-inspired protein bar.

New nostalgia-inspired protein bars, plant-based nut bars, and savory popped crisps launch at Walmart stores nationwide.