Smart stuff
PepsiCo (Purchase, N.Y.) continues to extend its low-carb offerings, this time with products under the Quaker brand. New are Quaker Q-Smart snack bars and rice snacks. The rice snacks are similar to rice cakes, in a small, bite-size form. The bars are like other bars on the market, in that they come in multipacks of individually wrapped bars.
The bars have only 3g of “impact” carbs and are trans-fat free, the company says. Currently, two flavors are available: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Almond. It is unclear why PepsiCo did not choose to take its Edge sub-brand (which appears on Frito-Lay snacks and Pepsi-Cola) to the Quaker product, as it would reinforce a family of products. However, what the company has done is to choose a brand name that can be a low-carb brand today and perhaps a brand that has a different health and wellness focus in the future, if need be.
Ranking Nutritional Components
Nutritional Traits Considered Important % of Americans
When Purchasing Foods Agreeing
Total calories 40%
Total fat 37%
Calories from fat 32%
Saturated fat 32%
Cholesterol 31%
Total carbohydrates 30%
Sodium 29%
Protein 19%
Source: InsightExpress; n=500
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