“We take fresh vegetables from the farm, clean them, slice them and bake them using a proprietary multi-step drying and baking process to impart the crunch,” explained Padki, who said he’s having conversations with retailers about placing the snacks (MSRP $4.29) in the produce set, better for you snacking set, and the salty snacks set.
“Most of the snacks on the market are either fried or extruded, so the typical veggie chips have anything from 25-35% added fat,” claimed Padki, who said the market for salty and savory snacks was “much larger” than the fruit chips market, and that Bare Snacks was a brand consumers associated with simple, clean ingredients lists.
“None of our chips have any added fat, we don’t fry anything," added Padki, who said the veggie chips will hit shelves in April at retailers including Kroger, Target, Wegmans, HEB, Safeway, Ahold, and Amazon.
"There are also extruded veggie snacks, but the missing ingredient in them is really vegetables. Our philosophy is simple real stuff, whether it’s fruits or veggies.”
Consumers, he added, want “simple ingredients, clean labels and no added sugar.”
Bare Snacks (originally Bare Fruit) began in 2004 when farmer Eric Strandberg and neighbor Jeff Oberfelder began making apple crisps from the apples grown on their farms in Okanogan Valley in northern Washington State.
By the end of 2018, the brand will be in more than 25,000 stores, said the company, which saw "strong double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in 2017 and expects to continue this trajectory into 2018."