Sweet (And Savory)! Exchange Buyers Among Judges in Sweets and Snacks Expo Awards

Exchange buyers Amber Seibert and Heather Key were among more than two dozen industry experts who were judges in the Most Innovative New Product Awards program at the Sweets and Snacks Expo on May 22-25 in Chicago.

The annual expo is the industry’s biggest candy show. It is presented by the National Confection Association, which works with Exchange buyers and invited Key and Seibert to be among the judges.

“It’s a prestigious honor to be selected,” said Key, who is the buyer for everyday candy. “It means we’re well-known in the industry for being an organization that suppliers enjoy working with.”

The judges represented 85% of the buying power for candy and snacks in the United States.

Exchange buyers Amber Seibert, left, and Heather Key at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago.

“When you’re judging, you can see the trends in flavor profiles, you can see up-and-coming innovations that you maybe haven’t seen before,” Seibert said. “I saw a lot of the flavor combination of sweet and spicy at the expo. It’s not new, but it has been a growing trend year over year.”

At the Express Seminar, which begins June 5, associates will learn about items that buyers saw at last year’s expo. Products at this year’s expo, if they are not already on shelves, could be on Express shelves by the beginning of next year.

And there was a lot to choose from: Judges tested more than 335 sweet and savory products to determine the top five items in each of 11 categories.

Exchange buyer Heather Key hangs out with the Haribo mascot at the Sweets & Snacks Expo.

“Thankfully, we didn’t have to taste-test every single one of them,” Key said with a laugh. “They split us up into groups by category. I got chocolate, so I had to taste about 40 chocolate items.”

Seibert said she tasted more than 60 items in two categories.

“The experience was great,” Seibert said. “Our job was to taste each of the items within the segments that we were given and evaluate their innovation, taste and packaging. I tasted seasonal products, which is my area of responsibility as a buyer. I also reviewed the non-chocolate segment. That was a lot of gummies and Laffy Taffys.”

In the context of the judging, Seibert said, the “seasonal” category covered the year. “It speaks to our holidays, so it was products that were indicative of Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween and Christmas,” she said. “I evaluated products from gingerbread to peppermint chocolate bark, Valentine’s lollipos and fall-themed candy corn, and a spicy tajin Christmas tree gummy. It was a very broad segment.”

Other categories included gum and mints; salty snacks; sweet snacks; meat snacks and more.

Taste-testing took place from 8 to 10 a.m. the day before the expo started. Judges used  the three criteria—innovation, packaging and taste—to score the products, then the aggregate scores were used to determine the winners in each category as well as Best in Show.

The top award went to Apple Cinnamon Chunk Nibbles, described by NCA publication Candy & Snack Today as “clusters of salty pretzels, dehydrated apples, organic cinnamon, cinnamon crumbles and corn squares from Chunk Nibbles.” (To find out all the winners, including the top five in each category, click here.)

Key said about 16,000 people attended the expo.

“There are tons of booths,” she said. “You can walk around, taste-test, talk to the suppliers, negotiate. It’s a good networking opportunity. People don’t realize how many candy suppliers and items are out there.”