Seven healthier snack brands to test a new food industry

The world of food innovation is evolving at speed, as entrepreneurs and pioneers in business and tech see the potential for huge change: change to the way consumers, and therefore investors, prioritise health; change to the way we design our food system to tackle inequality; and change to the way emerging brands establish themselves to compete with the big players.

We’re using this first selection of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to test a new way to produce and sell healthier snacks, engaging major actors across the commercial food sector to scale our chosen brands.

Our Portfolio Manager, Matt Towner, says: “Our discussions with major retailers and FMCG companies highlight the need for innovative approaches to product development to improve children’s health.

“Entrenched loyalties to unhealthy major brands are difficult to overcome by offering ‘healthy’ versions of the same product, which consumers often perceive as being less tasty. Similarly, supermarket own brand products struggle to excite children. The innovation process doesn’t adequately take into account the untapped need of families on low incomes for food that is affordable, tasty, convenient and healthy. As such, opportunities to develop mass market products are missed.

These are the first seven brands chosen for this test-and-learn phase of the project.

Over the next nine months, Mission Ventures will deliver tailored support to the chosen entrepreneurs to help their brands appeal to our target audience; reduce costs and price points; and to scale distribution and sales.

Good Food Fund is a collaboration between Impact on Urban Health, Mission Ventures, Ascension Ventures and Big Society Capital.

“Trying to find healthy snacks was always challenging for us; especially when on days out or picking the girls up from school and nursery. Tears and tantrums would often follow. We needed an on the go refreshment that would fill them up just a little, until dinner time. So, we put all of our crazy brains together to find out the stuff our kids and their friends loved and this led us to the idea of creating Naturelly Jelly Juice.”

“Kids love jelly and the market is currently dominated by market leaders with less than healthy or nutritious options. Naturelly offers a better for you range in both pots and pouches, offering in and out of home usage occasions.” – Paddy, CEO, Mission Ventures

“That’s why we created Snackzilla, deliciously healthy chewy oat cookies based on my Dutch Great Grandmother’s recipe and handmade in Yorkshire. They’re happy, you’re happy. Winning.” – Marieke, Founder

“All existing portion pack biscuits for kids on the market are high in fat and sugar. Snackzilla has a playful brand that delivers a less sweet oat based biscuit on an old family recipe, providing tasty soft to eat biscuits (favoured by young children) and a good source of fibre” – Paddy, CEO, Mission Ventures

“This is a simple David and Goliath challenger brand to a market leading marshmallow bar that combines great taste with a healthier, lower sugar alternative with simple but universally appealing branding.” – Paddy, CEO, Mission Ventures