From MrBeast to Biltong: Meat Snacks Flex New Muscles at NACS

Where’s the meat snack category heading? Innovation showcased at the National Association of Convenience Stores trade show last week offers some clues.

Simple formulations, grass-fed beef options and a slant towards premium-positioned products were on display at legacy brands’ booths as they strive to keep pace with, rising insurgent brands that have evolved the set.

Jack Link’s Leans Into Simplicity And High-Impact Collabs

Wisconsin-based Jack Link’s showed off a variety of new innovations and collaborations that it expects will broaden its appeal to different consumer demographics and different need states.

The biggest bet the family-owned meat snack company was sampling included its new JL3 product line. Available as sticks and jerky in Original and Hickory flavors, JL3 contains just three ingredients — beef, salt and vinegar — in its formulation and uses a biltong-like production process.

Jack Link’s is not choosing to describe JL3 as biltong because it is “not the most democratized name” for American consumers, said Jack Link’s brand manager John O’Brien, but it is similar in that it is a clean-label product with a drier texture and a straightforward beef flavor.

“It’s almost like we took the concept of biltong and made it even cleaner. The proposition is really trying to go after a female consumer,” he said.

Another upcoming launch of a 3 oz. “Beast” stick, which caters to value-driven consumers. Similar to JL3, the 3 oz. sticks are 100% beef with limited ingredients while responding to products from Jack Link’s competitors Slim Jim and Fatty (both Conagra-owned brands), which have large-format meat sticks in their portfolios.

“The number one claim for meat stick shoppers is that they’re looking for 100% beef,” O’Brien said, citing research from Jack Link’s’ consumer insights team. “A cleaner label product is where the consumer is moving.”

Driven by this insight, Jack Link’s recent collaboration with MrBeast is 100% beef with limited ingredients and no nitrates or nitrites.

O’Brien also pointed to the MrBeast collaboration leaning into the multipacks of mini-sticks as a response to successes seen from premium competitors like Chomps, Archer and New Primal.

“We’re going after the ‘Target mom’,” he said. “We want to take advantage of the pantry-packing we have seen, where the mini-sticks are perfect to throw in a lunch or a backpack.”

Oberto Plays Into International Flavors

Another legacy brand, Oberto Specialty Meats, has also expanded into more premium products that cater to consumer interest in single-species, meat snacks.

“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of demand and discretionary spending for high-quality products,” said John Oberto, chief business development officer and great-grandson of the company founder Constantino Oberto. “You’ve got to stick to where the consumer is at: fresh, healthy products.”

Oberto was displaying its expansion into refrigerated meat snacks like Chicken Bites, and charcuterie meat and cheese trays. In the shelf-stable set, the company has seen more demand for its grass-fed beef stick line.

“I’ll use air quotes, but social media has certainly ‘educated’ consumers,” Oberto said. “People believe everything they see on those channels, but it has led to tremendous momentum for grass-fed [beef].”

The company has also seen an opportunity for more “ethnic flavors” and has leaned into “global cuisine,” he said.

Flavors like Teriyaki, Chipotle, and Korean Barbecue have done very well, he said. Additionally, the German-inspired landjäger options from Bavarian Meats (acquired by Oberto’s parent company, Premium Brands Holdings, in 2020) have garnered significant brand loyalty as consumers become more accustomed to other regional varieties of meat snacks.