Brother and sister duo Adam and Sascha Jones have managed to convince a large part of Australia that their product is more than just ‘another protein bar’.
Although it is marketed as an ‘in-between meals’ bar, Set the Bar’s flagship product was originally designed for diabetics.
Company co-founder Adam Jones says there’s a massive market globally for healthy, low-GI foods that help diabetes sufferers, as well as those who are obese – and he and his sister Sascha wanted to tap into that.
“Obesity and diabetes, collectively referred to as the “diabesity” pandemic, are now considered to be the fastest growing chronic conditions worldwide,” he says.
As part of their mission, the team wanted its bars tested and certified as low-GI from day one.
The main challenge? The expense is extremely high, and formulations can’t be changed without needing to re-test all over again.
“We spent a lot of time in the first year improving the formulation and – importantly – the taste, so we could move forward with a product we were confident wouldn’t need changing before going through the certification process.”
The Joneses position their product at the premium end of the healthy snack bars market due to the quality of the vitamins, minerals, and probiotics used.
The bars contain 15 billion CFU of probiotics, over 10 per cent of the RDI for 18 essential vitamins and minerals, are gluten-free, high in fibre and protein, and contain no artificial sugars.
Set the Bar is seeking to tap into two of the biggest emerging trends – ‘snackification’ and “premiumisation’.