Two New Product Lines Foster Healthy Habits

Sunkist is on a mission to change American snacking habits. Chips and cookies are out. Fresh fruit and vegetables are in. It's all a part of two new product lines, Sunkist Fun Fruit and Sunkist Fresh, from the Sunkist Value Added Division.

Sunkist Fun Fruit is a line of single serve fresh cut fruits and vegetables for foodservice, all designed to meet the required USDA half cup and quarter cup equivalent servings. Sunkist Fun Fruit currently consists of Smiles (orange wedges), Grins (apple wedges), Pals (pineapple spears), Giggles (de-stemmed seedless grapes), and Kidders (peeled baby carrots).

What began in Boston Public Schools with Sunkist Smiles orange wedges has since spread to school districts throughout states east of the Mississippi, in part thanks to a USDA grant that helped Sunkist launch the project.

Sunkist has also begun to expand Fun Fruits beyond the school settings by launching a test market program at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia and other kid friendly venues in the region. With increased focus on healthy vending, Fun Fruit is being tested in vending machines in upstate New York.

Sunkist will open a processing and packaging facility in California later this year to spread Fun Fruits to the western part of the country. In the meantime, the company plans to launch Sunkist Fresh, a product line designed to capture a share of the adult snack market. It will begin offering single serve fruit and vegetable packages to customers in business and industry and on college campuses this fall.

With growing concern over obesity in both children and adults, the time couldn't be better to launch a new healthy snack product. Sunkist has a multi-pronged approach to marketing this new product line to both kids and adults and Fun Fruit has received positive reviews in articles in the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal and a CNBC news broadcast.