Innovative New Products Honored at Annual Sweets & Snacks Expo
INDIANAPOLIS — As the event does every year, the Sweets & Snacks Expo honors innovation in the candy and snacks industry with the Most Innovative New Products Awards.
[Read more Candy & Snacks news]
Retail leaders representing the confectionery and snack categories serve as judges across 13 categories that comprise the annual awards program. More than 300 candy and snack products were submitted for judging this year.
The 2024 Most Innovative New Product Awards Winners are:
- Baked Goods: Strawberry Cake Frosted Cookie — Simply Good Foods Co., Quest
- Best in Show: Avalanche Peanut Butter Treat — Nerdy Nuts
- Chocolate: Milk Chocolate PB Minis — SKIPPY
- Gourmet/Premium | Candy: Passionfruit Chocolate-Coated Licorice — Lakrids by Bulow
- Gum & Mints: HUBBA BUBBA, Mini Gum in Skittles Original Flavors — Mars Wrigley North America
- Meat Snacks: Hawaiian Beef Chips, Original with Roasted Garlic — CHYLER’S
- Nonchocolate Candy: Amos Peelerz, Gummy Mango — Amos Sweets Inc.
- Novelty/Licensed: Amos Peelerz, Gummy Banana — Amos Sweets Inc.
- Salty Snacks: Ramen Popcorn — Nomad Snacks
- Savory Snacks: (tie) Hot Cheddar Fries — Our Home, YOU NEED THIS and Doritos Dinamita Smoky Chile Queso — PepsiCo Foods
- Seasonal: Peanut Brittle — Anderson's Crazy Candy
- Small Business Innovator: Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberry Mochi Gummies — Issei
- Sweet Snacks: Banana Cream Pie Peanut Butter Treat — Nerdy Nuts
"With the Most Innovative New Product Awards, we celebrate the innovation that sets flavor and product trends for the confectionery and snack categories, and, in many ways, carries heavy influence across the entire food industry," said John Downs, president and CEO of the National Confectioners Association, the host organization for Sweets & Snacks Expo.
[Read more: Shifting Consumer Behaviors Blur the Lines Between Snacking & Meals]
"As consumers look to confectionery and snacks to enhance special moments, celebratory occasions, holidays and everyday activities, this innovation is more important than ever before. Through these awards, we recognize the manufacturers, retail partners, suppliers and brokers who play a role in delighting consumers across the country and around the world," he added.
The 2024 Sweets & Snacks Expo is taking place May 14-16 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. The annual trade show features new product launches, business-building solutions and merchandising innovations. The Supplier Showcase and Innovation Awards Ceremony kicked off the gathering on May 13.
The event is sponsored by the National Confectioners Association, the leading trade organization for the $48 billion U.S. confectionery industry.