Mondelez buys Enjoy Life Foods

Even the maker of Oreo cookies is buying into the world of health snacks.

Mondelez, which also makes such familiar snack brands as Cadbury, Chips Ahoy and Ritz, on Monday announced the acquisition of Enjoy Life Foods, which specializes in allergy-free snack foods. Both companies declined to disclose the purchase price.

Enjoy Life makes 40-some cookies, snack bars and savory snacks that are free of the eight most common food allergens: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy, fish and shellfish.

For Mondelez, with annual revenue of $34 billion last year, it's part of an effort to improve its products. "We have a critical role to play in empowering consumers to snack mindfully," says Mark Clouse, chief growth officer.

By 2020, says Clouse, the company plans to boost its "Better Choices" products to 25% of its revenue; increase the availability of portion-control products by 25%; reduce sodium and saturated fats in its products by 10%; and increase use of whole grains in products by 25%.

America's biggest food makers are growing increasingly serious about better-for-you products in the snacking category, a $374 billion global industry that's growing about 2% annually, according to a recent Nielsen Global Survey of Snacking.

And now, the better-for-you eating world has a newer, $12 billion, fast-growing category dubbed the "free from" (allergens) segment. Growth, which research firm Euromonitor estimates could reach $18 billion by 2016, is being driven not just by folks with allergies, but by consumers who want to be free from these ingredients.

"This isn't a trend, but a seismic shift in the way people are eating and thinking about food," says Scott Mandell, CEO and founder of Enjoy Life, in a phone interview. "People care more about what they're putting in their bodies."

Mandell says the cost of ingredients means products such as his cost about a dollar more a pack than conventional snacks .

Driving many consumers towards better-for-you foods: fear. "Some people like to have boundaries set as to what they can or can't eat," says Joy Blakeslee, director of MSLGroup Culinary Studio, which does food and beverage publicity. "When there is a boundary, you can eliminate — and not be tempted by — whole segments of food."

By Mandell's estimates, roughly 50% of buyers of Enjoy Life products have food allergies or have close family members who do. Roughly 100 million Americans have a food allergy or a food intolerance, says Mandell. About 8% of children have at least one food allergy, he says, and one in five households have a family member with a food allergy or a food intolerance.

But the other 50% of Enjoy Life customers buy the brand not because of allergies, but because they believe the ingredients can contribute to a healthier lifestyle.

Enjoy Life will run as a separate company. Mandell, who remains CEO, says he hopes to expand into salty snacks, crackers and some other chocolate products.

No, Mandell does not have any food allergies. But after he started the company, his wife, Dana, who has suffered stomach ailments, went gluten free and dairy free.

Now, says Mandell, her stomach problems are gone.