Setton International Foods Inc., a family-owned company based in Commack, NY, offers more than 1,000 different products, including nuts, dried fruit, edible seeds and other snack items marketed under the “Setton Farms” brand. In 1995, Setton acquired a state-of-the-art pistachio processing and packaging plant in Terra Bella, CA, and formed Setton Pistachios of Terra Bella Inc., which has become the second largest processor of pistachios in the United States.

Last year, the company launched a new product line called “Pistachio Chewy Bites” consisting of a .71-ounce bar of whole pistachios and cranberries, packed six per bag in zip-lock stand-up bags.

The new two-pack of Setton's Pistachio Chewey Bites.“The product was doing so well,” that it was decided to introduce two new pack styles for the Chewy Bites, said Joseph Setton, a principal in the company, in an interview with The Produce News Sept. 5.

One is an individually wrapped Pistachio Chewy Bite. The other is a two-pack, consisting of two individually wrapped Chewy Bites in a single outer wrapper.

In all three products, each piece is about half the size of the typical snack bars on the market. What often happens with full-sized snack bars, said Caroline Kelm, who handles public relations for Setton Farms, is that a consumer will eat half of the bar, fold the wrapper over the remaining half, and put it in a bag or pocket “where it becomes a sticky mess later on. With Chewy Bites, they wanted to make a half a bar” for portion control. A consumer could either eat one piece, equal to half a bar, or eat two, “which would equate to a whole,” she said.

Now with the two new packaging formats, consumers can actually by a single piece individually wrapped or can buy the equivalent of a whole bar but still in two individually wrapped pieces, maintaining the portability of the other separately-wrapped piece. A consumer can eat both, save one for later or share with a friend, and the uneaten portion is still wrapped. “That, I think, doesn’t exist in the market at all,” said Setton.

Both of the new products are expected to be available in October and at least one of them should be ready to display at the Setton Farms booth at the PMA Expo in Anaheim, CA.

Early in 2015, the company plans to come out with two new flavors of Pistachio Chewy Bites, to complement the present pistachio-and-cranberry product, Setton said.

The company continues to expand its offering with the introduction of other products as well. Among them is “a dark chocolate pistachio that we just came out with that is doing very well,” he said. “We are trying to reach out to new customers by doing that. People want the healthy pistachios, and we are giving those to them in different formats.”

Kelm noted that Chewy Bites are the only snack bar on the market that uses “100 percent whole pistachios. Where other bars do have pistachio pieces scattered throughout, since Setton Farms is a vertical company” which grows the pistachios, processes them and manufactures the product, “they can make a bar packed with full pistachios and do that affordably.”

The product is all natural, gluten free, dairy free and GMO free, she added.

“All our products come in retail-ready shipper displays, and they are beautifully designed, very eye catching,” she added. “Also, the PR support is there” for retail. “We have had a ton of placements, and will continue to, in glossy magazines and on broadcasts online. That makes retailers very happy.”

The company has many “ambassadors” who have featured Pistachio Chewy Bites and other Setton Farms products, generating over 250 million impressions in the media, said Setton. Among them are nutrition expert Mitzi Dulan, a registered dietician and author of several books, and vegan chefs Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg.