20 Mar 2022 Interesting evolution of healthy peanut snacking
UK snack company, Real Handful, hopes to shake up the nut category with a unique new range – Air Nuts, designed as a lighter way to snack on an old favourite.
Air Nuts are an aerated nut snack with an out of this World honeycomb texture making them >60% lighter than regular nuts. Made with 83% peanuts they’re a source of plant protein, high in fibre and at under 115 calories per 20g serving they’re lighter, but “definitely still nuts!”, says the company.
A category first, the range is created by blending peanuts with rice flour and seasoning before baking and aerating them through a patented process. No oil is used to produce the range which launches in four flavours; Sea Salted, Salt & Black Pepper, Cheese & Onion and Hot Chilli.
Joe Taylor, co-founder comments: “At Real Handful we love nuts, they’re natures powerhouse and packed with plant nutrition. We passionately believe that we can help double the nut snacking category in the UK, a £771m opportunity which would have a huge macro-nutritional benefit for the UK population and is endorsed by nut snackings compliance with the HFSS (high fat, sugar and salt) legislation.
“However nut snacking hasn’t changed for decades with products fried and roasted in oil and holding negative health associations in the mind of consumers, particularly younger consumers. In 2021 we took the first step with the introduction of our Baked range of nuts and peanuts which is sold in Morrison’s, Booths, Ocado and seasonally with Sainsbury’s.
“At the same time we surveyed over 800 nut snackers looking to identify the main barriers to increasing nut consumption. Two of the top four barriers were concerns over portion control and calorie consumption when snacking on nuts.
“Our new Air Nuts range helps overcome this barrier by offering a fun new snack that doesn’t compromise on the nutritional benefits of nuts but through it’s unique lighter texture and bold flavouring can provide a credible alternative to crisps and regular nut snacks.
“We think Air Nuts represents the most significant, and exciting, innovation to hit the UK nut snacking category in years and we’re so excited to be launching with Wholefoods as a first to market before rolling the range out nationally.
“Through 2022 we’ll be heavily supporting trial and sampling of the range ….”
Source: Real Handful