An innovative approach to ingredients and the challenges they posed has taken Hopper Hip Hop Fruit and Cereal Bars, produced by Smart Snacks, to the finals of the FOOD Magazine Challenge Awards.
The fruit and cereal snack bars, which carry a ‘no junk’ promise, were developed to provide children with a genuinely healthy snack food that can be carried in lunchboxes.
Each bar contains less than 6% fat and does not contain any preservatives, additives, artificial flavours, trans fats or added sugar.
The ingredients used are all natural including low GI oats and real fruit, which is preserved through its natural sugars and light coatingof vegetable oil.
Using apple juice concentrate and pear paste as a binder and sweetener, as opposed to glucose syrup, threw up a manufacturing challenge in achieving the correct fruit syrup temperature without burning.