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Science Behind Bars at IFT10

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:21:26 +0000

The Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT) annual tradeshow and conference took place in Chicago from July 17-21 at McCormick Place. The event is the largest annual gathering of food scientists and product developers as well as ingredient and services suppliers to the food industry in North America. The sample and prototype bars served at IFT offer a glimpse of the near bar future. New ingredients, novel flavors, and new bar technology were on display at many of the 1,000+ exhibits.

DSM, one of the world’s largest nutritional companies and a sponsor of BarsAreFood’s coverage of IFT, was promoting a couple prototype nutritional bars featuring their function ingredients. They were serving the following:

Berry Beautiful, is a bar made of honey, oats, cranberries, blueberries and almonds with vital nutrients for skin health. It is supplemented with DSM Beauty Blends Skinhance (Vitamins C, E, B2,B3, B5, B6, B12; Maltodextrin, FloraGLO Lutein, redivivo lycopene, Beta Caroteen, and Biotin).

Visual Performance Bar, is a chocolate chip cranberry bar that contains 5mg of FloraGLO Lutein, 1 mg of Optisharp Zeaxanthin, 5 mg of Coenzyme Q10, and 10% DV of Vitamins B, C, and E.

While DSM doesn’t produce branded bars, its prototypes were very tasty, almost worthy of a BarsAreFood review!

DSM also gave BarsAreFood a sneak peak at two newly launched websites:

www.unlimitednutrition-na.dsm.com – provides registered users access to product information, 24/7 on-line ordering and order tracking. The site has a special section under segments for nutritional bars which allows readers to learn about DSM’s capabilities and nutritional solutions for the nutritional bars manufacturer’s and marketer’s.

http://talkingnutrition.dsm.com — The blog-style site listing nutritional news run by DSM Head of Scientific Affairs, Michael McBurney, PhD.

While IFT is great for learning cutting edge nutritional information, the shows we really look forward are those where we can sample finished products. To that end, BarsAreFood is looking forward to Expo East which comes to our hometown of Boston, MA on October 14-16. This show, along with its larger sister show Expo West, provide some of the best bar hopping opportunities of the year! If you know of some good bar shows that we should attend, please let us know at barsarefood@bevnet.com.

Prana Bar: Cinnamon Apple

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:18:29 +0000

The list of attributes across the top of this bar has to be close to a record. It reads, “Enzyme Active * Organic * Unprocessed * Non-GMO * Soy Free * No Sugar Added * Gluten Free * Dairy Free * Vegan * All-Natural”. The one attribute that really differentiates this bar however is the emphasis on enzymes. The bar devotes its entire educational panel on the back to inform readers about the benefits of enzymes. As it turns out, the company doesn’t add enzymes to it, rather they are retained in the original ingredients due to the fact that the bar isn’t processed.

The cinnamon-apple flavor in this bar is great. The main three ingredients are a mix of walnuts, almond butter and dried apple that all come together for a great flavor. The bar is very moist and we ate ours well past its “Best by” date. The bar packs 230 calories, 4g of protein and 4g of fiber. The almond butter and nuts in this bar pack in 12g of fat, but then again, that is probably why it tastes so good.

From marketing standpoint, we feel the company is a bit too focused on enzymes. Yes, it is a point of differentiation, but it is a little bit of a scary word to put on an all-natural food. We feel a focus on unprocessed, raw with a simple mention of enzymes on the back might serve this bar better in terms of helping it off the store shelves.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Bars Bonanza at Expo West 2010

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:48:14 +0000

Bars were in abundance at the recent Expo West trade show(...)
Read the rest of Bars Bonanza at Expo West 2010 (602 words)

Make Your Own Bars

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:17:34 +0000

Make your own bars with ingredients found at your local grocery store.(...)
Read the rest of Make Your Own Bars (423 words)

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Post tags: almonds, baking sheet, bar, batches, bran, brown rice syrup, cashew, cashews, cherries, Coconut, crunch, cup brown rice, cup oat bran, cup raisins, dried cherries, dried dates, fiber, flavor, flavorings, flavors, flax, food processor, ground flax seed, liking, local grocery store, low speed, meal, meal replacement, mixture, natural, Nutrition, oat, oats, orange zest, peanuts, pecans, Protein, raisin, raw, raw bars, raw cashews, raw ingredients, raw sunflower seeds, refrigeration, rotary blade, salt mix, seed, seeds, snack, workout

Expo East 2009: Photo Recap

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:03:36 +0000

The 2009 Expo East Show was held in Boston (also the site of BarsAreFood.com HQ) and we were on hand to seek out new bar offerings.(...)
Read the rest of Expo East 2009: Photo Recap (145 words)

BarsAreFood.com Hall of Fame

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:44:25 +0000

Announcing our new “Hall of Fame,” which is a collection of all of the 5 star bars.

(...)
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Review: YouBar (YouBars.com)

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:22:28 +0000

YouBars.com is a “build of bar site” founded by and run by a mother (Ava) and son (Anthony) team in Los Angeles, CA.(...)
Read the rest of Review: YouBar (YouBars.com) (571 words)

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Post tags: bar, cashew, cashews, consistency, fruit, functionality, honey, KIND, liking, Nutrition, tastes

Review: ElementBars.com

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:28:36 +0000

Element Bars.com is a web site where you can make your own bars, choosing from a variety of ingredients. If you’re not into that, they also offer a variety of pre-made “popular bars.”

In terms of building your bar, the web site offers an intuitive interface that steps you through the 5 categories of bar ingredients, including core, fruits, nuts, sweets, and boosts. It’s all done via drag and drop, with a real time nutritional panel (on the right side of the screen) updating as you go.

There are a potentially limitless combination of bars that you can make, especially by changing the “core” between “chewy,” “oaty,” “crispy,” and “datey.” With the exception of the “core” type, multiple ingredients from each category can be selected, so you can load up your bar to your heart’s content. Organic variations of many ingredients are available for an additional fee.

You’re also given the option (for free) to name your bar, which is actually printed on the label of the bar. There’s a graphic that attempts to point this out, but we didn’t understand its meaning until going through the site again after our order arrived.

Back to building your bar. If you’re like us, your first time through the site will probably result in a bar that’s loaded with way too much stuff (heck, who doesn’t want chocolate chips, M&M’s, honey, agave, and five kinds of dried fruit??). Fortunately, they’ve created two resources to help you. First, they have their “Taste Guarantee,” which lets you know when your bar has crossed the threshold of having too many ingredients or if you’ve paired flavors or boosts that don’t go well together.

Our bar in progress

The second feature, built with the bar newbie in mind, is “What’s your element?” This guides you through a series of questions, which are almost nonsensical in nature (e.g. “My type of ride is…”), and ultimately pairs you with a bar type. While we appreciate the light humor, this seems like a missed opportunity to actually help someone craft the bar that they are looking for. More appropriate questions, such as intended use (snack, meal replacement, energy) and flavor preferences would help make this more useful.

Once you’ve picked and are ready to buy, the purchase process is a bit clunky, requiring a two step registration process that includes an email confirmation. This could entice users to have second thoughts, so ditching this process might be helpful.

Our bars were shipped to us via USPS Priority Mail, using a USPS white box. The box was sloppily packed, using newspaper as the packing materials and the bars arranged haphazardly in the box. Using newsprint also left ink on the bar labels and our hands, making this not a nice format for a gift. As for the bars themselves, they were clearly made in small batches, and the overall quality of the bars seemed good (our flavor choices aside, of course). The label process also needs work, with some of our bars arriving with skewed labels and/or the plastic wrap slashed (rendering those particular bars inedible).

Fortunately, customer service was quick on the scene and our email inquiry was responded to very quickly. A refund for the damaged bars was given as was a discount coupon for a subsequent order. Subsequent ordering is, we might add, very easy, with a list of all of your creations available for quick reorder via your account page.

Minor packaging and label flaws aside, our overall experience with ElementBars.com was a good one – it’s definitely BarsAreFood.com approved.

Find out more — and make your bar now:
http://www.elementbars.com

Expo West 2009 Recap

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:28:57 +0000

The 2009 Natural Products Expo West Show was held March 6-8 in Anaheim, CA.

We were on hand, visiting all of the bar booths from our show planner and seeking out new bars. The more notable entries at the show were:

KIND – New KIND Plus bars. Each bar has a distinct “function” based on the added functional ingredients
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ProBar – New “fruition” line coming very soon
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Clif – New lemon flavored Clif Builder’s Bars
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Luna (Clif) – Brand new packaging. A full makeover for this line of bars designed for women.
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Think – New Think “Thin” bites, a portion control bar that is designed for the calorie conscious consumer.
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Lifeway Kefir Bars – Kefir coated bars with added probiotic cultures.
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Bobo’s Oat Bars – We finally had a chance to sample the full line of these awesome bars!
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Are you missing from our list? Do you have a new product? Contact us.

Below, you’ll find our show photo gallery of some of the booths that we visited…

[View with PicLens]

Welcome to BarsAreFood.com

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:01:43 +0000

Welcome to BarsAreFood.com. We’re here to cover the exciting industry of “bars,” including protein, nutrition, and energy bars.

Who are we? First of all, this is NOT a consumer blog. We’re professionals and are the same people that run BevNET.com, the leading web site for the beverage industry. We’re experienced reviewers of food and beverage products, with a collective 20 years of experience. While our editorial and reviews have been geared towards products that come in liquid form, there’s a lot of crossover with the “bar” category, both in terms of the companies that supply the ingredients and packaging and with the intended functionality of the products. Read about our staff.

Why bars? As mentioned above, there are a lot of similarities between bars and beverages. Both of them are exciting, dynamic, and innovative categories, with lots of new products being brought to market each year. Functionality, flavor, and packaging are paramount in both categories, and we look forward to bringing our eye for new products to a new industry.

What will be covered? BarsAreFood.com will provide product reviews and news articles focused on the products and suppliers that deal with this category.

Have questions or comments? Contact us