8 minute read
Category Insight
Twisting a classic
BY LIZ GOODWIN
A beloved snack staple, the pretzel is a favorite in the hearts of many consumers.
In the world of classic snacks, the pretzel is held dear.
Hungry at a county fair or a ball game? Having a sweet or salty crunchy craving? Need an excuse to dip something in cheese? A pretzel is there to satisfy. But as COVID-19 turned food trends on their heads, the pretzel category has also faced new demands, challenges and opportunities. Hard and soft pretzel producers are facing the new world of snacking head-on. Although the pandemic pushed the pretzel industry into new territory, the shift had been in motion for years. Health-and-wellness trends and new flavor combinations are evolving at breakneck speed, and it’s certainly changed the game for experienced pretzel producers. Justin Spannuth, VP and COO of Blandon, PA-based Unique Snacks, said that the new snacking landscape can cause a bit of whiplash, but it also presents new areas for success. “People want innovation of any sort as long as it’s new,” he said. “They want sustainable, organic, non-GMO, and a lot of those needs that exist now weren’t here 10 years ago. So, we’re focusing on getting new products in front of people, and there are a lot of nuances to it.”
Unique Snacks, formerly known as Unique Pretzels, has its hands in many pots of the hard-pretzel world, including its signature original “Splits,” sprouted pretzel shells, sprouted original Splits,
chocolate-coated pretzels and “chocolate crunchies,” which are chocolate bites stuffed with peanut butter and pretzel morsels. And the pressure to add more products that meet different needs is on.
Meeting those needs can be a tall and complicated order, especially for trends like gluten- and grain-free. Although Unique Snacks isn’t producing glutenfree items yet, as the team talks with others innovating in that space, it’s always learning something new.
“I’ve spent 20 years understanding baking technology to achieve a high-quality product with wheat and gluten, and now 90% of products have alternate ingredients because people don’t want wheat and gluten,” Spannuth said. “From trying to understand these new ingredients and how they work in different environments to understanding what those product bases taste like and how they change things like topicals, you’re always learning.”
For soft pretzels, the demand for innovation is less based on flavor or ingredients than shape. From bites to braids to sticks, soft pretzel producers are on a quest to find the latest and greatest contortion. This is especially true for Milwaukee Pretzel Co., a Bavarian soft pretzel manufacturer with products in foodservice, e-commerce and frozen grocery.
“People always ask us for a pretzel version of this and a pretzel version of that,” said Matt Wessel, owner and president of Milwaukee Pretzel Co. “They want circles, stars, braids. But we have to look at it both in terms of what we can make and what we can make quickly enough to justify selling.”
Although Milwaukee Pretzel has evaded challenges in its flavor innovation, it’s still had to overcome some production hurdles.
“Of course, we need mixers and ovens, and as we get bigger as a business, we need to scale our equipment up,” Wessel said. “But when it comes to German pretzels and the caustic soda application, that machinery is more specialized. And a lot of times it’s coming from overseas, so lead times are longer and the cost is higher.” Caustic soda, more commonly known as lye, is a high-pH solution applied to pretzels and similar products such as bagels that results in the brown, tangy and crunchy exterior with that soft interior. But since the pH is so intense, it can be dangerous for employees to handle; that’s why Wessel places a high priority on critical safety training.
When it comes to health-and-wellness and flavor trends for Milwaukee Pretzel,
Photo courtesy of Unique Snacks
Unique Snacks understands the pain points that often come with product innovation, so it often relies on equipment technology to help.
Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Pretzel Co.
Justin Spannuth | VP and COO | Unique Snacks
Milwaukee Pretzel Co. produces pretzels of all shapes and sizes, including it’s 1-lb “Bavarian Beast.” .
the team is sticking to what it knows. The pretzel formula is tried and true, and there’s not much interest in altering what works. Although health and wellness trends aren’t the primary target, this product does come with a hidden benefit: Bavarian pretzels have no added sugar.
“We don’t put sugar into our pretzel dough, and a lot of American doughs do that to create a sweeter pretzel,” Wessel said. “Ours is savory and has a rich flavor profile. We don’t overly promote the ‘no added sugar,’ but we definitely let people know it’s a sugar-free product.”
Although Unique Snacks is more focused on ingredient and flavor innovation, Spannuth can relate to an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. With all the challenges that follow innovation, sometimes it helps to stay in your lane, even if it means passing on a new SKU.
“As a brand, you have to know what your strengths are,” he said. “You’re never going to solve every problem. Making a kale chip because that answers one issue just doesn’t fit my brand, so we have to stay within our area and answer as many requests as possible.”
When it does make sense to venture into new territory, the equipment has to keep up. Spannuth said the bakery’s Reading Bakery Systems oven, which it purchased in 2013, is still going strong. But technology is changing, and conversations are underway about what improvements have been made and what makes the most sense to invest in.
“We are focusing on understanding what the new capabilities are and the innovation on the engineering side and what exists right now in the pretzel space that we want to attack,” Spannuth said. “If we can expand some points that are typically bottlenecks on innovation and use another oven for another baked product, that would be great.”
Beyond new product development, innovation on the bakery floor is critical when it comes to workforce challenges. From IoT to dough dividing, machines can be the best answer to a lack of manpower.
“Some of the biggest innovations are really trying to alleviate the workforce shortages,” Spannuth said. “With machines that utilize IoT and talk to each other, snack producers and other commercial bakers can integrate equipment. It all comes back to data and trying to maximize your efficiency.”
For Milwaukee Pretzel, a lot of its production is still by hand: twisting included. Since the company is only seven years in the making, it’s still at the beginning stages of automation. But Wessel has seen the potential of fully automated lines in other bakeries, and although his team won’t ever let go of its dough heads, he does think that, as the operation grows, there’s a lot to gain by investing in new machines.
“Using automation more and more every year makes the process easier, faster and more consistent,” Wessel said. “You’ll never fully eliminate the human component to it, but those large, automated facilities we’ve been in just take your breath away. And we’re looking at things that would take dough to a finished product state and do things faster and more consistently than what our staff can do.”
Spannuth also dreams of the day when speed, versatility and efficiency will live in harmony, especially on the packaging side. And it would be even better if the packaging were sustainable.
“Everybody can dream that there’s going to be speed and versatility at the same time with packaging, and sometimes it feels like a pipe dream,” he said. “But we’re also focusing on the base of the material that we’re using. I’m a part of One Step Closer, an organization trying to find compostable and recyclable materials that lessen our carbon footprint. It certainly puts another thing on the list to think about, but it’s great.”
At the end of the day, Wessel hopes to merge the artistic touch of a baker’s hand with a factory that’s fit for Mr. Wonka himself. That way, the robots can do the more tedious work, and the fun can be left to the humans.
“We love employing people, but if we could somehow have that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory experience, where you see a product go from dough creation to packing, that would be awesome,” he said. “Particularly on the lye application side since the caustic soda can be dangerous to work with. And with the pretzel transfer that’s so disruptive to the dough, that would be gratifying. Not only is it better for the product, but it would also be a nice reduction in a type of work where the employees would rather focus on something else.”
With all the explorations in flavors, fillings, shapes and sizes, pretzels are reaching new heights. But no matter the innovative ways to switch up this snack, it will always be a classic. CB
Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Pretzel Co.
Soft pretzel innovation is typically more shaped-based, and these baked snack producers are on the hunt for the latest and greatest contortion.
