NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 (PRNewswire) — KIND Healthy Snacks on Tuesday published the added sugar content of the 60+ snacks across its portfolio, furthering its commitment to transparency surrounding its products and their nutritionals. The announcement comes two years in advance of the deadline recently set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food companies to break out the added sugar content in their products.
"Our approach at KIND is to provide consumers with straightforward information about what they're putting into their bodies, so for us, publishing the added sugar content in our snacks is a natural next step in our ongoing commitment to transparency," said Daniel Lubetzky, Founder and CEO of KIND.
KIND shared the information on its newly launched web page, KIND Promises, which for the first time, publicly outlines the overarching health and nutrition principles that guide the company's innovation.
"Always using a nutrient-dense food like nuts, whole grains or fruit as our first ingredient and striving to make products that are low glycemic are among the standards that guide our product innovation," said Stephanie Perruzza, MS, RD, CDN and Health and Wellness Specialist at KIND. "As we look to the future, we'll continue to stand by these principles when creating new snacks made with wholesome, recognizable ingredients."
Over the years, the company has taken significant steps to use as little sugar as possible in its snacks without compromising taste or adding artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. These include:
- Last year, KIND announced an effort to reduce the sugar in seven of its Fruit & Nut bars to contain between 14 and 56 percent less added sugar compared to prior recipes. The rollout of the new bars, which began earlier this year, will be completed next year.
- Once the reformulated bars become available, all KIND snacks will have approximately ½ to 2 ½ teaspoons of added sugar per serving. Put into context, the USDA recommends individuals limit their daily intake of added sugars to no more than 12 teaspoons per day.1
- Made with only fruit & chia or fruit & veggies, KIND's newly launched Pressed by KIND™ bars contain no added sugar and provide two full servings of fruit, equivalent to 1 cup per the USDA's Dietary Guidelines, which suggests an intake of 1 to 2 cups of fruit per day.
- With 5g of sugar or less, all of the bars in KIND's best-selling Nuts & Spices line contain 50 to 60 percent less total sugar compared to the average nutrition bar.
1 US Department of Agriculture. (2015-2020). Dietary Guidelines for Americans (pg. 15)
About KIND Healthy Snacks
Since its founding in 2004, KIND® has been on a mission to make the world a little kinder one snack and one act at a time. KIND was born out of its founder's desire to create a snack that was healthy and tasty, wholesome and convenient. What began as a line of premium Fruit & Nut bars sparked the creation of an entirely new healthier snacking category. Today, KIND has a family of snacks that offer solutions for a variety of different occasions.
