‘Powered by the peel’
It’s been about a year since Matt Weiss launched his company, New York-based RIND Snacks.
“I found what I’m passionate about, and I’m going for it,” Weiss says. “You only go through this rodeo once.”
Weiss’ passion is his innovative skin-on superfruit snack brand, which now has distribution across about 300 natural and specialty locations in the U.S., including Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market, Seattle-based Amazon, New York-based Fairway Market, Bethesda, Md.-based Balducci’s, Parsippany, N.J.-based Kings Food Markets and other retailers. RIND Snacks will be exhibiting at Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore from Sept. 11-14.
RIND Snacks offers three SKUs — Tropical Blend, Orchard Blend and Tangy Kiwi. A new blend, Straw-Peary Blend, is coming soon. The snacks, which contain no preservatives, are “powered by the peel” and feature a tangy and chewy taste. They’re so good, they taste like candy.
But they are far from candy. The products, which are air dried using use low-heat commercial dehydrating equipment, are high in fiber and antioxidants. They contain no added sugar.
“The rind is where the greatest concentration of fiber and nutrition is [located],” Weiss says. “And yet it’s the most commonly discarded food scrap.”
With RIND Snacks, Weiss says he’s created a snack that offers functional benefits and helps fight food waste at the same time.
“The two biggest contributors to lost produce are overripe produce and edible peels that get discarded,” he says. “We like to say ‘keep it real and eat the peel.’ ”
RIND Snacks sources its fruit from small family farmers in California’s central valley. The Orchard Blend features sweet persimmon, tart apple and tangy peach; the Tropical Blend features bittersweet orange, pineapple and tangi kiwi; and the Tangy Kiwi features tart and tangy California kiwi. The Straw-Peary Blend will feature sweet red apple, bosc pear and strawberry.
“The value proposition is super simple,” Weiss says. “We don’t do anything to the fruit. We let nature’s candy really shine by adding no [other ingredients].”
Weiss is living the dream with RIND Snacks. More product launches and partnerships are coming, he says.
“We’ve found our competitive edge in a multi-billion-dollar snack marketplace by focusing on the literal edge of the fruit,” he says.
Weiss offers a product line that stands out and screams differentiation. Asked if the line was available for private branding, Weiss said maybe, if he can find the right retail partner. But he's not quite ready to go down that road yet. Weiss wants to establish the brand of his year-old company.