Confectionery

Ferrero to launch plant-based Nutella

© Ferrero/Nutella
Sweets & Snacks

Plant-Based Nutella and Hanuta Coming Soon to German Supermarkets?

According to recent reports, Ferrero will soon be offering vegan versions of two of its most popular classic products on the German market — Nutella and Hanuta (a German hazelnut wafer snack) At the end of May, the Italian confectionery company Ferrero announced its intention to launch plant-based Nutella on the Italian market in autumn. The new vegan Nutella was presented at the NielsenIQ event Linkontro in Sardinia at the beginning of May to mark the 60th anniversary of the iconic chocolate-hazelnut spread. According to a recent report by LZ Direkt, the new plant-based Nutella variant will most likely also be available in German supermarkets from January 2025. According to the report, Ferrero Germany has already registered a word/figurative mark for the new variant with …

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© KMC
Ingredients

KMC Launches New Potato-Based Gelling Agent That Can Replace Gelatin in Gummy Candies

Danish ingredient supplier KMC has announced the launch of a new gelling agent made from potato starch, allowing for the production of plant-based confectionery with a soft but chewy texture. While many plant-based gelling agents must be dried at 55°C (131°F) to attain a stable texture, the new ingredient becomes completely stable at just 25°C (77°F), meaning no special drying facilities are needed. Called Gelamyl 625, it can be used as the sole gelling agent in gummy candy and is said to provide a soft texture with a chewy and non-sticky bite. Gelamyl 625 can also be used as a partial replacement for gelatin, which reportedly allows for significant cost savings with no change in texture. The ingredient has been described as the “next generation …

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Ingredients

Ingood by Olga, a Plant-Based and Natural Ingredient for Confectionery

Ingood by Olga is the business unit dedicated to ingredients of the Olga group, a family-owned company based in French Brittany. Ingood by Olga is committed to better nutrition through plant-based foods, and they believe that good nutrition starts with taste. For example, confectionery is a fast-growing market where texture and taste play a crucial role. PEPTIPEA® perfectly meets these expectations. PEPTIPEA® is a pea protein hydrolysate derived from European yellow peas. This plant-based protein has been developed for the nutrition and food markets. PEPTIPEA® is a foaming agent and an ideal substitute for gelatine, thanks to its functional properties: – Texture improvement: thanks to the swelling properties of pea peptides, PEPTIPEA® offers a light, airy texture, perfect for marshmallows or melt-in-the-mouth sweets – Clean-label: PEPTIPEA® enables the formulation of clean-label …

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© Hancocks
Sweets & Snacks

Hancocks Depot Sees 40% Sales Boost After Installing Vegan & Vegetarian Aisle

A Bradford-based depot for UK confectionery wholesaler Hancocks has installed a 50ft aisle dedicated to vegan, vegetarian, and halal products. It is the first Hancocks depot in the country to introduce this type of aisle, with 200 products on offer. According to Talking Retail, the response from customers has been extremely positive, with sales for the store reported to be up by about 40% since the change was made. Some of the bestselling products in the new aisle are the Assorted Fizzy Mix, Jelly Blue Babies, and Blue Raspberry Bonbons — all made by Kingsway and suitable for vegans. It is not clear whether Hancocks’ remaining 13 depots UK-wide have plans to install similar aisles. However, the wholesaler says it is always working to meet …

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Pecan Deluxe sweets

© Pecan Deluxe Candy
Company News

Sweets Producer Pecan Deluxe Candy Makes Full Range Vegan, Avoiding Brexit Taxes

Pecan Deluxe Candy UK has reformulated the company’s recipes, making the whole range vegan, to avoid new British export regulations, which impose hefty taxes on animal-derived products. Pecan Delux Candy is a family-owned manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas, with international sites in the UK and Thailand. The company is a custom wholesale supplier with a portfolio ranging from toppings, baking inclusions, fudges, cookie dough, and popping candy. Tapping into current trends The company reformulated recipes, replacing butter and eggs for plant-based alternatives that don’t require the same EU border checks, after European exports dropped to 55% of total UK sales compared with 84% before Brexit. The bosses state that the products are now cheaper to produce and also tap into the current zeitgeist: “A plant-based …

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Hancocks vegan confectionery range

© Hancocks
Sweets & Snacks

Hancocks Expands Vegan Confectionery Range for Veganuary

As Veganuary approaches, the UK’s largest confectionery wholesaler Hancocks has expanded its vegan confectionery range. The selection features new sweets made by Swedish brand Bubs, such as Cool Passion and Pineapple flavour foam skulls. A variety of vegan confectionery is also available under the Kingsway brand, including versions of classic sweets such as Cola Bottles, Twin Cherries, Jelly Babies, and Giant Strawberries. The new sweets add to Hancocks’ existing vegan range, which includes Moo Free dairy-free chocolates, vegan marshmallows, and sweets made by major brands such as Rowntrees and Swizzels. The latter has also announced six new product launches for Veganuary. Vegan options by Hancocks At the beginning of 2021, Hancocks added 300 new vegan products to keep up with soaring demand. Just a few …

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Swizzels

© Swizzels
Sweets & Snacks

Swizzels Launches Six New Vegan Sweets for Veganuary

Swizzels has launched a range of new vegan sweets for Veganuary, as the UK confectionery brand prepares for the fourth year of its “All These, All Year, All Vegan” campaign. The new products include three variety bags (Luscious Lollies, Scrumptious Sweets, and Curious Chews), along with the Party Mix tub, Minions chew bars, and the Minions tropical chew bag. They add to Swizzels’ existing vegan-friendly range, which includes Refreshers chews, Rainbow Drops, Love Hearts, Fizzers, and more. Last year, Swizzels reported a 22% jump in sales during Veganuary, following the success of the company’s annual campaign to promote its vegan sweets. With more people than ever signing up for Veganuary 2023, Swizzels could be set for an even bigger boost. Vegan confectionery in the UK …

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Tasty Mates

© Tasty Mates
Sweets & Snacks

Tasty Mates Launches Gourmet Vegan Confectionery at Ocado

UK-based gourmet vegan confectionery brand Tasty Mates has secured its first major grocery listing at online supermarket Ocado. Three flavours — Pear Crumble, Very Berry, and Salted Caramel — will be available. The gummy sweets are free of animal products and artificial ingredients. Tasty Mates was founded by friends Joe Woolf and Nick Sunshine, who set out to “portray their mates through unique sweet flavours“. The brand is already available at various national UK retailers, including WH Smith, Holland & Barrett, and The Vegan Kind supermarket. Vegan confectionery Demand for vegan confectionery is soaring — last year, the UK’s largest confectioner Hancocks added hundreds of new vegan products to its range due to “exponential” market growth. According to a recent market report, the vegan chocolate …

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© Jealous Sweets
Facts & Figures

Jealous Sweets: Plant-Based, Sugar-Free Sweets With No Artificial Ingredients

Jealous Sweets is a plant-based UK confectionery brand making sweets free of artificial ingredients, palm oil, and gluten. The sweets are flavoured with real fruit juice, and many are also free of refined sugar. The company was founded in 2010 by friends Tahzeen Basunia and Imran Merza. The pair left their corporate jobs and set out on a mission to improve the quality and choice of confectionery on the market. Jealous Sweets secured its first retail listing at Selfridges in 2011, followed by others at Whole Foods UK, Harvey Nichols, Harrods, and Asda in subsequent years. In 2019, the company expanded outside the UK for the first time when it launched in Hong Kong and Singapore. Plant-based sweets in the UK Demand for vegan confectionery …

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Butterm!lk choc bar on palm frong

©Butterm!lk

Company News

UK’s Butterm!lk Wins in Four Categories at the 2022 Free From Food Awards

Butterm!lk is a UK heritage brand which began life as a traditional fudge shop in Cornwall back in 1964. Its chocolates are all dairy-free, palm-oil free and the packaging is fully compostable. The brand contacts vegconomist to report that it has been awarded four prizes in this year’s Free From Food Awards, as follows: The Caramel Nougat Bar won double Gold in the ‘Best Confectionery’ and the ‘Innovation Award’ The Honeycomb Blast Bar won Bronze for ”Best Confectionery’ The Hot Choccy Bombe was awarded Bronze in the ‘Innovation Award’ The Caramel Nougat Bar was runner up as the ‘Free from Food of the Year’ According to the family brand, the judges shared their thoughts on why the Caramel Nougat Bar was a worthy winner: “Really …

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© Pri's Puddings
Sweets & Snacks

Pri’s Puddings Becomes “UK’s First HFSS Compliant Confectionery Brand”

From October, HFSS (high in fat, sugar, and salt) legislation in the UK will restrict many snack producers from marketing their products. But this won’t apply to Pri’s Puddings, which claims to be the country’s first HFSS compliant confectionery brand. Under the new rules, products will need to meet certain nutritional benchmarks in order to be featured in promotions and advertisements. Currently, 97% of confectionery brands do not meet these requirements. But plant-based company Pri’s Puddings has become one of the first to reformulate its products to make them HFSS compliant. For example, each snack in the brand’s Pocket-Sized Pies range contains just five whole-food ingredients. Inspired by American desserts, the Pocket-Sized Pies come in the flavours Pecan, Peanut Butter, Cashew, and Choco. They now …

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Callebaut NXT

©Callebaut

Products & Launches

Callebaut Reinvents Belgian Gourmet Chocolate With “NXT” Dark and Milk Chocolates

Callebaut, the Belgian gourmet chocolate division by The Barry Callebaut Group, announces the launch of its 100% plant-based dark and milky tasting chocolates range aiming to support chefs and artisans re-inventing traditional chocolate recipes. Continuously expanding its plant-based chocolates portfolio since 2018, Swiss chocolate giant Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate, has positioned itself as an important player in the growing market for vegan dark and milk chocolates. While Barry Callebaut launched several milk-free chocolate ranges over the past years, Callebaut NXT marks the first step into the plant-based gourmet chocolate market aimed at chefs and artisans. Global Movement of Belgian Gourmet Chocolate Following 3 years of R&D, the vegan chocolate range Callebaut NXT is aimed to help chefs around the world …

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trade fair ISM Cologne

© ISM Cologne
Fairs & Events

Vegconomist to Attend World’s Leading Sweets & Snacks Trade Fair ISM Cologne

The world’s leading confectionery and snacks trade fair ISM Cologne is set to take place from January 30 to February 2 2022, following a two-year break due to the pandemic. The trade fair will feature 1,085 exhibitors from 56 countries, showcasing sweets such as chocolate, biscuits, and ice cream alongside a range of snacks. The event will cover 90,000 square metres of space at Cologne’s fairground. As in previous years, ProSweets Cologne, the international supplier trade fair for the confectionery and snacks industry, will take place alongside ISM. Together, the two fairs cover the entire value chain for the industry. An “indispensable” opportunity “Meeting up face-to-face with important trade buyers as well as winning over new customers is indispensable for our exhibiting companies,” Gerald Böse, …

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vegan jelly tots

© Rowntree's
Products & Launches

Rowntree’s Launches Vegan Jelly Tots in a Range of Tropical Flavours

Nestlé-owned British confectionery brand Rowntree’s is adding to its range of vegan Jelly Tots with a new product — Tropical Tots. The sweets will come in five flavours — passion fruit, peach, pineapple, grapefruit, and mango. They will be available exclusively at Tesco from mid-February, with a recommended retail price of £1.59. Vegan products by Rowntree’s In recent years, Rowntree’s has been actively working to make its range more vegan-friendly. While Jelly Tots have never contained animal products, the brand’s Fruit Pastilles were previously unsuitable for vegans. But in 2020, Rowntree’s removed gelatine from the sweets in response to requests from consumers following vegan, vegetarian, and religious diets. The company says the new recipe has made the sweets slightly softer, without affecting their taste or …

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Moo Free

©Moo Free
Products & Launches

Hancocks Confectionery Veganuary Vegan Sweets Selection Unveiled

Hancocks confectionery has unveiled its range of vegan sweets ahead of Veganuary 2022, with the UK’s leading wholesaler stating: “We are super proud of the huge vegan range we provide to our retailers and customers” Featuring producers like Swedish confectionery brand BUBs, Hancocks is continuing to grow its extensive selection of vegan sweets for retailers. Other brands like Kingsway offer a huge range of vegan pick and mix favourites. Vegan chocolate lovers are also covered in Hancock’s range with offerings from brands including Tony Chocoloney, Moo Free and Dirty Cow. Classic dispenser brand PEZ is also vegan, as well as Rowntree’s Giant Jelly Tots and Fruit Pastilles Tubes. Vegan Sweets Vegan confectionery has exploded in popularity in recent years and is expected to grow. As …

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Vegan Delights

© Sofia Audrey Johnson
Food & Beverage

Vegan Delights: Sweden’s 100% Vegan Wonka-Inspired Chocolate Factory

Inspired by Willy Wonka, entrepreneur Anahita Vazvan has opened the doors to her family chocolate factory in Sweden, called Vegan Delights, where customers can meet the female-led company and enjoy a huge variety of imaginative vegan treats. The company’s initial vision “was to create vegan treats that didn’t feel like a compromise and that dream was turned into reality”, one that is ethically driven and involves a diverse team of coworkers. Vegan Delights has most notably developed a vegan Snickers called ‘Vegickers’, which is the company’s bestseller and has already become a firm customer favourite. In 2019, confectionery giant Mars, producer of the conventional snickers bar, became the first major confectionery company to launch a veganised line with Galaxy Vegan. Following the ongoing trend for …

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FFF-Vanilla-Mallows-Bag-HR-6-21
Products & Launches

Vegan Marshmallows Arrive in Sainsbury’s in Time For Halloween & Guy Fawkes

Award-winning confectionery brand Free From FellowsTM announces that its vegan marshmallows will debut in Sainsbury’s this Sunday 17th October, in time for Halloween and Guy Fawkes night festivities. Three new products will be available – large mallows in vanilla and strawberry flavours and mini pink and white mallows in vanilla flavour, all retailing at £1.50. The demand for vegan-friendly confectionery continues to soar in international markets. As we reported in January, the UK’s largest confectionery retailer, Hancock’s, added 300 lines of vegan sweets to its 14 cash and carry stores across the UK, to keep up with demand. In May, Hancocks expanded its vegan offerings even further, commenting that the country’s vegan market was growing at an “exponential rate”. In line with Free From Fellow’s …

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©Chicago Vegan Foods
Company News

Dandies Vegan Marshmallow Innovator Chicago Vegan Foods Celebrates 20th Birthday, Reports 40X Growth

Chicago Vegan Foods, producer of Dandies – the first internationally available vegan and gelatin-free marshmallow – has turned 20 years old. The successful vegan producer has experienced 40x growth over the past 10 years and continues to grow with a new line of plant-based products coming soon.  After expanding into a new state-of-the-art facility in 2018 to meet growing demand, Chicago Vegan Foods recently launched its popular animal-free marshmallows in the UK. Family-owned and self-funded, the vegan food company continues to innovate in the plant-based category with its takes on classic comfort foods. The company is currently ramping up for a new line of plant-based product offerings in new categories launching under the Dandies brand for 2022. Coming out of the  ’90s animal rights movement, …

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NOMO giant choc buttons

©NOMO
Products & Launches

NOMO Launches New Vegan Choc Buttons, Has Sold 351 Tonnes of Chocolate – Equal to Almost 30 Double Decker Buses

Following the recent launch of its vegan chocolate lollipops for children, NOMO – the UK’s number one vegan and free-from chocolate brand – has announced the launch of giant chocolate drop-shaped buttons in its most popular flavours, Creamy Choc and Caramel & Sea Salt. As well as being suitable as treats for plant-based or children with allergies, the drops are also suitable for use in baking, an activity on the continuous rise since the beginning of the global health situation. The new product launch follows a hugely successful year for the brand, with Jacqueline Tyrrell, Brand Manager explaining, “Since launching in 2019, NOMO has become officially the number one vegan and free-from chocolate brand in the UK worth £9m in RSV selling over 6.6 million in …

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Lindt vegan Santa Claus

©Lindt
Products & Launches

Lindt Presents the Vegan HELLO Santa in Oat Milk Chocolate

Lindt announced yesterday it has launched the HELLO Santa for the first time in a vegan version. This follows its news last July when the global chocolate brand added three vegan “milk” chocolate bars to its popular HELLO range in Germany in Cookie, Hazelnut, and Salted Caramel flavours. The HELLO Vegan bars won the PETA Vegan Food Award as the best vegan chocolate. Now the Hello vegan milk chocolate is available in Santa form, as the confectionary leader introduces the veganised Santa in answer to the common problem of what to gift to vegan friends and family members for Christmas. He is dressed in a new green outfit, which suggests what’s inside – a vegan HELLO recipe, in which the milk is replaced by oat …

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