A taste of South America

The 2015 Speciality & Fine Food Fair is where Inka Snacks will launch their Sweet Potato Chips, which use sweet potatoes grown in Peru.

Independent retailers looking for a different sort of snack to offer their customers can turn to Inka Snacks, a British-based company specialising in tasty snacks from South America. Already firmly established in this sector, the company is set to launch its latest product at this year’s Speciality and Fine Food Fair at Olympia this September.

Inka Snacks Sweet Potato Chips offer retailers a real point of difference, says Inka Snacks’ founder and managing director, Mariana Maher. Sweet potato chips are a newcomer to UK shelves and purveying a product from South America will enable independent retailers to stand out from the supermarkets.

Mariana is keen to emphasise the health benefits of her sweet potato snacks. “Inka Sweet Potato Chips are low in salt,” she says.”They were originally made without salt, but our research indicated that the British public likes a little salt and so that is what has been added. These chips are lower in salt than potato crisps.”

But, of course, it is the taste itself which will gain the product a following, and Inka Snacks Sweet Potato Chips have “a unique taste, with a lot of flavour,” Marian says. “That flavour is strong and sweet, with just a hint of salt. It’s the sort of snack that will be a particularly good fit with independent food retailers, she says, because “it’s a gourmet snack made with best quality ingredients and sustainable palm oil.” The sweet potatoes themselves, (or ‘camote’) are grown on the coast of Peru and “sliced to a perfect thickness, not too thick, and not too thin,” Mariana says.

The sweet potato chips join other products in the Inka range which have already proved themselves with British retailers. Inka Snacks Roasted Giant Corn is available in smartly packaged Original and Chilli flavours and is original not only for the taste experience but also for the size of the corn. Retailers may like to know that the corn is grown in the Incas’ Sacred Valley, whose latitude and altitude allow the corn to achieve its unique size. The company also produces Amazon Plantain Chips, which are retailed by Holland&Barrett.

Regionality is important to this company, whose branding references three regions of South America, the coast, the Amazon and the Andes. Local textiles particular to each region are used in packaging design to connect the food with its point of origin and to provide a striking product for retailers’ shelves.

The Inka range has already been well-received, with products being accepted for sale in 264 Waitrose outlets and Mariana has high hopes that the new Inka Snacks Sweet Potato Chips will enjoy similar success.

www.inkasnacks.co.uk