Dang Foods rolls out high-fat, low-carb FATBAR

• Dang Foods has introduced the 11% plant-based FATBAR, which the company touts as “keto friendly,”Food Navigator said. This is the first foray into the crowded bar market for a company best known for coconut chips and sticky rice snacks.
• The FATBAR is high in fat, has moderate protein and low carbs, and is nut-based with no added sugar, feeding into the keto-diet craze. Dang’s founder, Vincent Kitirattragarn, is a recent convert to the ketogenic diet. He’s quick to point out in Food Navigator that other bars have ditched high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar, but replaced them with dates, honey, maple syrup or rice syrup, which are still sugars.
• FATBAR, on the other hand, is sweetened with stevia extract and comes in three flavors — almond vanilla, lemon matcha and chocolate sea salt. It will launch on Amazon in September and Whole Foods in early 2019.

Dive Insight:

Everyone is looking for the perfect way to lose fat and add muscle, and one popular way to do that is through the ketogenic diet. But not all fats are created equal, and consumers are aware of the dangers of saturated fats with 11% saying they are healthy and 40% unhealthy, according to the International Food Information Council.

Still, consumption of animal fats is on the rise, and the trend is led by millennials, according to a 2016 survey from Coast Packing Company and Ipsos Research. About 13% of all survey respondents said they would be willing to consume animal fats, up from 9% in 2015. In addition, 9% of respondents said they increased their consumption of animal fats compared to 6% the year before. In terms of millennials, 20% reported having increased their intake, up from 13% in 2015.