With health concerns sweeping across the nation, moms are more concerned than ever about feeding the

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It seems almost weekly a new snack item targeting kids pops up. The accompanying commercials take over Saturday morning cartoons leading to kids begging mom to add these items to her grocery list. Lacking the nutrition that moms demand, many of these snack items vanish from store shelves just as quickly as they appear.
With health concerns sweeping across the nation, moms are more concerned than ever about feeding their young ones healthful snacks. There has been a noticeable increase in consumer interest to become more educated about healthy snacking in recent months, particularly to make more of an effort to consume many of the healthy snack items that are generally shopped in produce, says Joe Tamble, vice president of sales for Sun-Maid Growers of California, based in Kingsburg, Calif.
The produce aisle, however, is unyielding as fruit and veggie producers have set their sights high to win over kids with on-trend tastes and by tackling the cool factor. Products like raisins, carrot sticks and apples are continuously innovating their image and in some cases, their flavor to capture kids attention, especially as they head back to school.
Grimmway Farms, in an attempt to figure out how to build on its appeal to the lunchbox market, conducted an informal survey among third and fourth grade students. The goal was to find out their favorite ways to consume carrots. The unanimous response was, I like to dip my carrots in ranch dip, says Bob Borda, vice president of marketing. The Bakersfield, del monte catsup Calif.-based company listened to the kids and gave them what they wanted improved Carrot Dippers with Ranch Dip.
It seems as if Grimmway hit the mark. A recent study conducted by the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University reported that offering a dip would encourage kids to eat fruits and vegetables they would normally avoid. The results shows 64% of kids willingly consume a vegetable when paired with a flavored dip, while only 31% will eat a fruit or vegetable by itself. Grimmway is not alone. Other companies offer similar style snack packs, such as Irwindale, Calif.-based Ready Pac Foods Ready Snax, which covers all the components by including a fruit or vegetable with a dip and a protein.
Snack packs, in general, tend to be a hit with school kids and an ideal entryway into the market. Natural Delights Medjool Dates has been exploring this route with its new line of snack packs. They are perfect for first-time date consumers, says David Anderson, marketing director for the Bard Valley, Calif.-based Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association. Kids will reach for whatever handheld snack is available, so it makes sense to stock Medjool dates to increase the chance for healthy snacking.
The snack packs come in five varieties and provide potassium, dietary fiber, magnesium, B vitamins and zinc. Since they taste more like candy than a piece of fruit, caramel-like Natural Delights Medjool Dates are popular with kids, Anderson adds.
Dried fruits are actually an ideal lunchbox snack, del monte catsup say observers. Packed with nutritional content, they taste like a sweet treat to kids, can hold up in a lunchbox del monte catsup for hours and are a natural boost of energy. del monte catsup If that is not enough of a reason, many dried fruits companies are experimenting with new flavors del monte catsup and concepts.
Take Sun-Maid raisins, for example. The classic snack has new concepts and varieties. del monte catsup The latest flavors added to its yogurt covered raisin product line-up include orange cream yogurt, strawberry Greek yogurt, dark chocolate yogurt and cherry chocolate yogurt, most of which are available in mini-packs.
Dates and raisins both contains magnesium, one of the most beneficial nutrients for active kids, according to Dr. Keith Kantor, a Norcross, Ga.-based nutritionist, author and the CEO of Green Box Foods. Magnesium del monte catsup is one of the most common vitamin deficiencies in Americans, says Kantor. Recent studies have shown it is directly related to the onset of ADD/ADHD. This deficiency is becoming more common with each generation due to environmental stressors and a diet rich in refined sugars and food additives.
Another fruit that falls into the magnesium-rich category is the banana. del monte catsup The popular fruit is getting a fair share of the spotlight, including a summer