A Conversation with BeeFree Founder on…

BeeFree Gluten-Free
is built around clean label principles and real, recognizable ingredients. The brand’s Warrior Snack Mixes and Mini Bars combine almonds, sunflower seeds, pepitas and coconut with the natural sweetness of honey to create snacks designed to fuel everyday life.

As founder Jennifer Wiese puts it: “We are big fans of the delicious nectar our honey bees create for us. It’s the hero ingredient in our Warrior Snacks and Mini Bars.” We recently spoke to her about using honey for sweetness, flavor and functionality, which helps Warrior Snack Mixes and Mini Bars stand out in a crowded better-for-you space.

Great seeing you at Natural Products Expo West! How was the show?

It was great and such a unique experience for me. Being there as a guest of the Almond Board of California was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We’ve been an indie brand the last couple of years, and if you’re smaller but have money to expand quickly, Expo West is 100% worth the time and money.

Have you noticed consumer awareness or demand shifts specifically tied to honey as an ingredient in better-for-you snacks?

Consumers are more interested in where honey comes from; people are reading labels more than they ever have in their entire lives. So, I do answer more questions about where we’re sourcing and if the honey is pure honey.

Are there any functional advantages of honey in gluten-free or allergen-friendly formulations that you rely on most?

We certainly could use other types of sweeteners, but we chose honey for a couple of different reasons. We love the flavor, the pureness of it and that it’s a single source ingredient. We’re all about simple, pure and tasty. Honey checked off all of those things for us, and also the texture that it provides for the products we use it in.

We started our company back in 2010, and in 2013 paleo became really popular. I feel like paleo-friendly ingredients and that way of life is still really popular. We just don’t call it paleo anymore; it was kind of a trendy thing, but I feel like that faded away. But the way people are eating, and the way people are reading labels and sourcing food, I feel like paleo cracked the door open for that to be a way of life naturally. For that reason, honey was a really great ingredient for us.

How does honey function within your snack formulations beyond sweetness and flavor?
Gluten-free has come a long way, and texture and honey certainly play into that. It serves as a great, natural single source binder for a lot of gluten-free foods.

Where do you see innovation opportunities for honey in next-generation snack formats or better-for-you products like yours?

We’d like to see more ready-to-eat, grab-and-go snack products specifically for children because moms and dads deserve better for their kids. I feel like there isn’t a wide enough variety of choices, so we’re going to be drilling down that area and in general trying to provide better ingredient snacking choices. We want to spend our time and attention getting it into the hands of people wherever they are, like in airports and sporting events, in addition to the traditional grocery and club stores.

We want to create a brand that people recognize when they see our logo. They’re drawn to BeeFree because they’ve tasted our other products, they know they love it and they trust us. So, they’re anticipating something really good inside that package.

To learn more about the BeeFree journey from their family’s kitchen to store shelves visit https://www.beefreegf.com/pages/about.