Juice by Rescued Fruits
In Sweden 30 percent of all cultivated fruits and vegetables are wasted. This fact is the background to the business idea behind Swedish juice brand Rescued Fruits. In 2018 the company rescued 168 tonnes of fruits and veggies that otherwise would have been wasted. In 2019 it rescued twice as much: 325 tonnes.
They rescue bananas, apples, beets, blueberries, carrots, lemons and limes, to mention a few, and the produce comes mainly from growers and large food stores. The fruit is checked, sorted, washed and pressed into delicious juice. The juices, containing nothing but fruit, vegetables and natural flavourings such as cinnamon, come in eight flavour combinations, adapted to what’s in season and what is rescued at the moment. Apple-Cinnamon, Apple-Ginger and Carrot-Ginger are the three bestsellers.
Protein n’ Peanuts by Nick’s
Can healthy snacks be both nutritious and delicious? Absolutely, according to entrepreneur Niclas Luthman, the co-founder of snack and confectionery company Nick’s. The company, launched in 2017, aims to make good products with a positive health impact. It’s on “a Swedish mission to improve the world of snacks.” The products are free from sugar, gluten and palm oil. Their sweetness is powered by plant-based sweeteners such as stevia and xylitol.
Nick’s started after Niclas found himself close to developing diabetes partly due to bad eating habits. When he removed sugar from his diet, he saw immediate results in terms of improved health – which led to the creation of Nick’s. After intense research, and experimenting with taste and health benefits, he came up with Nick’s first product – a chocolate-covered wafer bar. Since then the company has worked hard on improving taste as well as developing new products such as a wide range of bars, ice cream, chocolate drinks and sweeteners. One of Nick’s latest launches is the protein bar Protein n’ Peanuts, with crunchy peanuts covered in milk chocolate. ”It’s crazy good, we promise you!”
Oat Smoothie by Färsking
No Junk Just Funk – that’s the recipe of Färsking (freshing), an innovative Swedish brand launched in 2015 by young students Amanda Rosengren and Calle Larsson, who wanted to fight the war for more nutritious snacks and cereal by aiming primarily at kids and young people.
It started off with their launch of a more nutritious granola than the existing ones on the store shelves. In 2019 Färsking’s latest product, oat smoothies, was launched to replace “junk food with funk food” by taking the best of two worlds – fruits and fibre-rich oats.
Färsking’s oat smoothie in three flavourings (raspberry-blueberry, banana-coconut and peach-sea buckthorn) is made out of fruit and a patented oat base and contains no sugar.
No need to keep it in the fridge, which makes it a perfect snack on the go.
Softa by Saltå Kvarn
According to the research company Mintel, “organic” is the number one added value for consumers when they get to choose from values like vegan, gluten free, no added sugar and high fibre. And dried fruit is on the rise, according to Saltå Kvarn’s own research. “Fruit leather”, “fruit bites” and “fruit bars” – the trend is evident. People seem to want to choose dried fruit as a healthier and more nutritious alternative to candy and snacks with added sugar.
Saltå Kvarn, a Swedish organic food company established in 1964, wants to make is easier for consumers to eat more fruit and veggies on the go.
Last year the company launched Softa, a selection of nutritious, organic snacks in a range of flavours, with rhubarb and cranberry the latest ones. The fruits and berries have been dried at low temperatures for the perfect texture, and they contain lots of fibre and without additives. Another product in Saltå Kvarn’s new snack range is high-fibre roasted coconut chips.
Milkshake by Barebells
The Barebells Functional Foods brand, launched in Sweden in 2016, offers a wide range of protein-enriched snacks and candy, without compromising on flavour. The company’s philosophy, similar to Nick’s, is to create “guilt-free pleasure”. All products have a high protein and low sugar content with the aim of keeping blood-sugar levels stable and leaving one feeling full for longer.
Barebells is one of Sweden’s best-selling protein bars. Their 10th flavour, with Swedish influences, was launched in the autumn of 2019: Blueberry Cake, with sourish blueberries and sweet white chocolate. Swedes have a special love for blueberries, both eating and picking them, as it is one of the berries that grow naturally in the forests of Sweden.
Barebells milkshakes, with 24 grams of protein, are the brand’s best-selling products, after the protein bars. The milkshakes come in five flavours, are free from lactose and have no added sugars. “100 % Barbellicious!”
My Foodie by Veg of Lund
My Foodie is a smoothie brand launched by the company Veg of Lund in cooperation with Professor Eva Tornberg from University of Lund. “We Swedes invite everyone to enjoy goodness from plants and Swedish food innovation,” My Foodie says.
A healthy and tasty product for vegans was Professor Tornberg’s goal when she started looking into the possibilities. Since 2018 My Foodie smoothies have been produced with a patented method and contain “everything you need and nothing you don’t”. The secret ingredients are potato and rapeseed oil, which in combination provide a rich creaminess to the smoothies.
“The great thing about potato is that it has a neutral taste profile and the fat from the oil brings out the flavors”, she says.
My Foodie currently comes in three flavours: blueberry, raspberry and sea buckthorn. Other than the potato and oil base, My Foodie contains only berries and fruit. It’s free from lactose, dairy products, gluten, oats, soy, nuts, animal products and added sugar. It’s a great healthy snack, a plant-based in-between meal on the go.
Chia smoothies by Dejunked
In 2014 it was a challenge to find healthy snacks for in-between meals and on-the-go eating. That was when friends Catherine Benzel and Sarah Weibull got their own idea of how to enrich the food store shelves with nutritious snacks.
”Most things on the store shelves contained lots of sugar, sweeteners and additives,” Catherine says. “We were both in a place in life where we wanted to do something new, and that’s when we decided to go for it.”
The result was Dejunked, a healthy snack brand offering 100 percent organic smoothies with fruits, veggies, berries and protein-rich chia seeds.
“We made a lot of chia pudding at home at the time and thought it was a great snack,” she says. “And in 2014 to 2015 “chia pudding” was the most Googled term within the food category in Sweden.”
Dejunked come in three flavour combinations, and two new product series are due to launch in 2020.
Ice cream by Lily & Hanna Raw Food Ice Dream
The idea behind the vegan and raw-food Ice cream brand Lily & Hanna’s Raw Food Ice Dream was born when Hanna Reimers’s daughter Lily had to stop eating dairy products as she needed to reduce the amount of animal fat in her diet. Since both Hanna and her daughter were big fans of ice cream and they couldn’t find any vegan alternatives on the market, she started making vegan ice cream in her own kitchen.
That was when Hanna started to explore the possibilities of developing a healthy ice cream for the Swedish market.
“My ambition was to make the world’s best, healthiest and most climate-friendly ice cream,” Hanna says.
All the ingredients are of the highest quality, organic and natural. The creaminess comes from cold-pressed coconut oil and soaked cashews. The ice cream is sweetened with dried coconut blossom nectar, made from the nectar of coconut flowers, and agave nectar. All seven flavours of ice cream are 100 percent vegan and organic with no additives.