BEST SNACK

STARTUP CPG SHELFIES AWARDS

BEST SNACK

FINALISTS

SVAA HAA

Svaa Haa makes nutrition-packed, addictive snacks out of the ancient Ayurvedic beans that helped heal founder Priyanka. The Spicy Chili Garlic Straws are made from green mung, black gram and horse gram beans, and are packed with authentic Indian spices. An alternative to chips or puffs, these savory snacks are gluten free, plant-based, and packed with 5g of fiber and 5g of protein in each serving. Toodaloo's adaptogenic trail mixes turn everything you know about trail mix on its head -- literally. Their Turning Heads mix combines sprouted nuts, seeds, chewy superfruits, coconut, sea buckthron and white rose in a rich cacao blend that leaves you wanting more. These non-GMO mixes are free of any processed sugars, artificial flavors or preservatives and peanuts, and focus on regenerative farming practices to share the very best snack for you and the planet.

KENKO

BITES

Kenko Bites are your daily dose of veggies — in cracker form. These crunchy, insanely satisfying crackers were made with only 6 simple ingredients: carrots, broccoli, cabbage, red bell pepper, sesame seeds and sea salt. Created with the goal of making eating vegetables just as easy and delicious as eating junk food, these deliciously savory crackers are addicting alone, but also make for the perfect (undetectably veggie-packed) vehicle for your favorite dips.

TOODALOO

BEST SNACK

POPADELICS

Fun-Gal Snacks was founded in July 2020 on a mission to create innovative snacks that harness the benefits of mushrooms and other underloved veggies, all while supporting social causes. Popadelics Crunchy Mushroom Chips, Fun-Gal Snacks’ flagship product that launched in April 2022, are shiitake mushrooms reimagined for the modern superfood snacker. Popadelics was founded by Marilyn Yang and Michael Casali. Prior to founding FunGal Snacks LLC, Marilyn held roles in private equity investing and investment banking in NYC, including having been involved with a number of food manufacturing and CPG companies. Mike worked in VC with a particular focus on early-stage health companies, and moonlighted as an unofficial snack connoisseur. Partners in both business and in life, Marilyn claims that Mike’s equal passion for mushrooms — “to the point where it became a defining element of our personalities” — was one of the main reasons she knew they were meant to be. “I actually remember that we really bonded about this on one of our early dates — while eating mushroom pasta, of course,” Marilyn recalls. As mushroom enthusiasts, Marilyn and Michael noticed that mushrooms are notably absent today from today’s snacking landscape, yet are on the verge of hitting an inflection point in the public consciousness. After seeing the opening for a modern, edgy brand focused on crunchy mushroom snacks, Popadelics was born. Since founding, they have expanded from DTC to retail and wholesale, but the most exciting accom-

plishment for the founders? Becoming official partners for Electric Zoo Music Festival this year. As two major EDM fans, Marilyn and Mike always hoped to get Popadelics into EZoo “someday” — and were able to achieve it only a few months after launching the product.

As they continue expansion, the Popadelics team hopes to also expand the public perception of mushrooms: “Many people don’t realize that the mushroom world is so much bigger than just psilocybin, or just white button mushrooms,” says Marilyn. “Our snacks prove that mushrooms are multifaceted — they aren’t just that standard chewy texture when raw, and have the potential and proven ability to become a super crunchy, chip-like snack like Popadelics. There’s a whole wide world of mushrooms out there, and with Popadelics, we hope to be just one small piece that helps make mushrooms mainstream.”

Popadelics is currently available in three mouth-watering, culinary-inspired flavors — Trippin’ Truffle Parm, Twisted Thai Chili, and Rad Rosemary + Salt — and are vegan and nonGMO. A portion of all sales supports the Fun-Gal Snacks Foundation, which supports health and wellness causes. Popadelics is available for purchase on popadelics.com, Amazon, Multiverse, and a number of other ecommerce platforms, as well as at select independent natural food stores in 11 states and counting. For a full list of retailers, please visit: https://popadelics. com/pages/store-locator.