Authentic Asia: Thai seasonings brand taps rise of at-home snacking to launch new retail range

There can be no doubt that the snacking category has seen a rapid rise in popularity since the peak of the pandemic, and this has led to the emergence of many different snack formats and brands in the region.

This burgeoning growth has also seen consumers becoming increasingly keen to experiment with different snacking products, particularly when it comes to the concept of creating snacks with ‘professional-level’ flavours in their own home.

“Nithi Foods has long experience in producing interesting and fragrant yet flavourful seasonings for industry players, particularly when working with snacking companies – this has given us a unique edge in terms of producing seasonings on a comparable level in terms of quality with these ‘professional’ snacks,”​ Nithi Foods Managing Director Smith Taweelerdniti told FoodNavigator-Asia​ in the latest edition of our FNA InnovATE video series.

“The main concept here is to enable consumers to have direct access to such flavours and seasonings, and we have perfected the ingredients and technology that can deliver this same quality to households everywhere and equip all consumers with professional-level ingredients via a snack seasonings range.”​

Nithi Foods’ new snack seasoning powders range is dubbed Kitchen Kitchen, in hopes of relating the seasonings to cooking in the kitchen – the idea is that consumers can make or purchase their own plain chips or fries at home, and add these powders to the plain base product.

“Snacks are often considered a derivative of sorts of a ‘real food’, for example barbecue-flavoured chips are a derivative of a real barbecue meal – and at the heart of it, everyone is looking for snacks that taste as authentic as possible,”​ he added.

“This is even more so in Asia where spices are so predominant and consumers are very well-travelled and well-read so they know what the ‘real foods’ are supposed to actually taste like, and so expect products to taste just like the real thing.​

“In Thailand, the trend for snacks is along the extreme tastes and spicy foods in particular – many consumers want flavours such as super spicy, 10x spicy, Sichuan mala and so on. But whether it is spicy or not, for the wider Asian region, flavour authenticity is definitely at the top of the list.”​

Kitchen Kitchen’s first snack seasonings range comprises five flavours based on the top five favourite food items in Thailand: Barbecue, cheese, sour cream and onion, hot wings and paprika.

“Snacks here in this region generally need to be easy-to-eat and crunchy and also filling enough to satiate consumers halfway between meals – but enjoyability still tops the list of key drivers to entice them, so high quality flavours cannot be neglected,”​ he added.

Watch the video above to find out more.