6 New Meat Snacks From the 2023 Sweets & Snack Expo

Meat snack vendors on the tradeshow floor of the Sweets & Snack Expo made a couple of things clear: size matters, and flavor innovation can mean a lot of things, from seasoning to the type of meat used in a product.

Here’s a look at some of the meat-snack products featured on the show floor ...

Jack Link’s highlighted its partnership with Frito-Lay, featuring its Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili- and Flamin’ Hot-flavored beef jerky. Both launched earlier this year. Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Beef Jerky won a Most Innovative New Product Award from the National Confectioners Association in the meat snack category.

Conagra highlighted expanded distribution of its Slim Jim Monster Shortboi meat stick. The shorter but same-weight as the original Slim Jim meat stick is intended to offer retailers easier merchandising opportunities, ideally to drive impulse purchases. The Monster Shortboi is a 0.97-ounce meat stick that is compact enough to be shelved on front-end and checkout lane candy racks.

Wenzel’s Farm highlighted new package size for its Dill Pickle Snack Sticks, launching a 2-ounce version intended for front-counter placement in convenience stores. The snack initially launched in an 8-ounce late last year.

Sweetwood Smoke & Co. unveiled a new flavor of its Fatty smoked meat sticks, with Jalapeno Cheddar joining the lineup of Original, Jalapeno, Honey BBQ, Teriyaki, Pepperoni and Cheddar.

Field Trip Snacks displayed a wide variety of meat-snack options, highlighting numerous types of protein and flavor options. The line includes jerky and sticks in meat, chicken and turkey, and seasoning options that include hot truffle with jalapeno, cracked pepper, buffalo style, teriyaki Mandarin orange and exclusive rights to Everything Bagel seasoning.

Finally, Frankford Candy’s Gummy Bacon may have looked like jerky, but the decidedly sweet treat is meant for fun. The gummy candy is part of Frankford’s cobranded candy lines, which include lookalike candy products from Kellogg’s, Dunkin’, Nickelodion, and the bacon, Lunchables and even Macaroni & Cheese cobranded with Kraft-Heinz Co.’s Oscar Meyer.