Can Pickled Fruit Be The Next Big Snack Food?

GLK Foods – the world’s largest sauerkraut producer – is gambling on the success of its pickled foods brand Oh Snap! and launching what it believes can be the next better-for-you fruit snack. The product debut comes as other fermented food brands have tried to move from multi-serve to single-serve products, with varying degrees of success.

Oh Snap! is launching its new pickled fruits in four SKUs – spiced and unspiced varieties of apple and pineapple. The two-ounce snack pouches have an MSRP of $1.79. The brand hopes to mimic the successful strategy of the original pickled carrots, cucumbers, beans and peas which have continued a sales growth trajectory of 45% year-over-year ever since they hit shelves in 2015, GLK president Ryan Downs said.

“People love the convenience, the no mess. It’s really kind of insane. It just keeps growing,” he said.

Downs admits there will be some consumer education that comes with a pickled fruit snack, so GLK is expanding its digital footprint and building social media campaigns. Content strategy will include emphasizing both the benefits of pickled fruit and as well as creative usage ideas like using the product as a topping for salads, tacos or pizza.

Though much of GLK’s business is in co-packing, the company also manages five sauerkraut brands (Saverne, Cortland Valley, Silver Floss, Flanagan and Patch) in addition to Oh Snap!. The hope is that by broadening its single-serve offerings, Downs said, GLK can eventually develop a larger healthier snacking platform.

Testing this thesis hasn’t required much added investment so far, Downs said, other than sourcing new fruit suppliers and setting up separate production lines that are garlic-free.

Downs sees the most opportunity in the c-store channel where Oh Snap!’s pickled vegetables already “fly off the shelves,” but is cautious about moving too fast because consumer adoption will be slow. Still, cracking the c-store channel at all is no small feat, where many other better-for-you brands have struggled to compete against cheaper, commodity competitors.

Although there are few competitors in the pickled fruit, single-serve pickles are not a new product. With the recent acquisition of Sonoma Brinery and a $19 million capital raise position, fermented food brand Cleveland Kitchen plans to enter the snacking pickle category with a grab-and-go product this fall.

But beyond grab-and-go pickles, fermented food brands have struggled to make their products snackable. For a time, Farmhouse Culture tried to offer fermented products like probiotic juices and Kraut Krisps, but subsequent leadership teams, and now owners, have downshifted the business to to focus on its Gut Shots and multi-serve kraut. There are also numerous conventional players.

Consumer interest in pickled flavored snacks remains strong so the opportunity may be there. Recently, Ithaca Hummus partnered with Grillo Pickles to develop a pickle-flavored hummus and Opopop released a dill pickle-flavored popcorn snack.

Downs noted that grab-and-go fruit-based snacks are largely limited to perishable fresh fruit and sugar-laden fruit cups or dried fruit. For vegetables, options generally include packaged carrots or kale chips. Oh Snap!’s pickled fruit checks all the boxes for consumers seeking an accessible snack that is sweet, salty, savory and healthy, he said.

With its original snacking pickles, Oh Snap! unintentionally caught on with the Keto-friendly demographic which helped to build the brand’s strong sales. There is hope that pickled fruits might be able to again capitalize on shoppers looking for functional benefits, this time with gut-health and flavor, Downs added.

“It [pickling fruit] does change the flavor profile just enough without compromising on texture,” he said. “It’s unique, and it’s just a different experience. So I think there will be converts.”