SmartSweets young founder Tara Bosch is riding the enormous wave that is the current healthy and organic snack foods trend. Her Vancouver-based candy company offers a range of gummy products that are sweetened with stevia leaf extract instead of sugar. This allows her treats to be under 100 calories per pack.

Bosch’s confections are available online and in a variety of stores in the US, including health conscious stores like Whole Foods and GNC. The lack of sugar is a unignorable part of SmartSweets popularity and though the brand is found in 10,000 stores across the country, Bosch predicts that 2019 will bring her even greater success.

“Currently we’re in 10,000 primarily natural and specialty stores, and by the end of the year that store count will have more than doubled and see us moving into mass, drug and grocery,” Bosch said in an interview with FoodNavigator-USA.

Perhaps one of Tara Bosch’s advantages in the candy industry is that she is part of the demographic to which she is selling. After all, Generation Y and Z are the biggest proponents of healthy snack options. One thing Bosch is focused on is dispelling the notion that her candy is an alternative to traditional, sugary treats. Instead, it should be looked at as a legitimate snack option, not a compromise.

There is no doubt that the candy industry is enduring a transformation and so far it appears that SmartSweets will benefit from this in the end.

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