Creating snack products for allergen-sensitive shoppers can be a delicate balancing act. The challenge is to deliver products that are free from allergens while also offering appealing taste and high quality. The makers of SeedWise Snacks have accepted that challenge, launching a line granolas and clusters with allergen-friendly recipes in a variety of interesting flavors intended to delight consumers.

A family affair

Ozery Bakery started small—according to CEO and co-owner Guy Ozery, the company began as his brother Alon’s class project at college. With some help from his then-wife Hadas and father Al, they built upon the university assignment to create a small health-food-focused sandwich shop in Toronto in 1996.

“What they set out to do was establish a family-owned business that combined our heritage with modern-day eating and the need to create innovative healthy, homemade, tasty flatbreads and snacks,” explains Ozery. “Ultimately, we were successful in creating a hybrid product of old-world flatbreads infused with new world flavors.”

The authentic baked goods were a hit with customers. The Ozery family empire grew further and just two years later in 1998, they opened a bakery facility in Toronto, producing the pita and flatbreads that resonated with its customers. 

Next, the company released its Morning Rounds breakfast-centric buns and thinly sliced sandwich OneBuns. As challenges arose along the way to these new-product launches, they dealt with them. When trying to figure out how to scale up and automate without losing quality, they worked with local equipment suppliers to design and construct custom-designed machinery. The company was then able to get their bakery products into major grocery chains in Canada and across the border in the U.S. In addition, they managed to grow while remaining a tight-knit family company. Ozery adds that while the products are “crafted with love and care,” professional standards remain high.

“We maintain strict manufacturing processes and set for ourselves the highest of standards that we always make sure we adhere to because, ultimately, we want to create the best products out there,” he says.

Trendspotting

The Ozery Bakery team, as it grew and expanded the reach of its bakery products, kept an eye on market and consumer trends. According to Guy, they noticed a number of health trends that they likely could not tap into with their existing product lineup—namely, consumers with gluten-free, keto-friendly, no-sugar, and allergen-free needs couldn’t enjoy their wares.

“What we did as a team was sit down and start to brainstorm ideas on how we could fit in and embrace these new industry trends. This opened up a whole new world for us, literally, because it got us thinking about what sorts of products we could make and bake that would cause some excitement amongst our loyal consumer base,” he relates.

The company hit upon an ingredient that has been a part of their recipes from the beginning.

“We just always loved the nutritional aspect and value of seeds, not to mention their individual flavor profiles,” he says. “Why not just continue to work with seeds and, essentially, eliminate everything else? Our mission became to find ways of bringing various different seeds together to create a line of new, delicious snacks. That’s how SeedWise was born.”

SeedWise Snacks, available online and at a number of North American retailers, are a line of granolas and clusters. The current flavors are predominantly sweet—the clusters come in Chocolate, Mixed Berry, and Sweet & Salty varieties, the granola in Lemon Blueberry and Cherry Chocolate—but Guy reveals the development team is tinkering with savory flavors, such as Smoky Barbeque and Jalapeno Lime.

Acting against allergens

As with the original launch of Ozery Bakery, the launch of its SeedWise Snacks division faced a number of challenges. For starters, their original bakery items contain a number of ingredients that could be an issue for shoppers with certain dietary concerns. With the goal of making SeedWise gluten-free, for example, they had to make some changes.

“In order for us to earn our gluten-free certification, we had to take a chunk of our bakery and literally separate and segregate it away from every other part of the facility that contained gluten-rich ingredients;” Guy explains. “By creating that separate space within our production facility, we established for ourselves a gluten-free area that eventually earned its very own gluten-free certification from the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO).”

Thinking ahead to sesame officially becoming the ninth major allergen in the U.S. this year, Guy says, the company set about eliminating sesame seeds from its production, a goal it achieved in plenty of time for the January 2023 deadline. It successfully sourced quality, allergen-free ingredients, and, after coming up with recipes, the team continues to fine-tune them to get them perfect.

“Our talented product development team spends a great deal of time experimenting and playing around with various different recipes in order to find the exact balance of health and flavour profile that we want,” Guy says. “There is no easy way around this; it simply comes down to sheer talent and hard work.”

Ozery Bakery is an independent business, but it has turned to partners to help further its goals along the way.

“Brand development is led by our very own marketing team who works hand-in-hand with a wonderful design firm called Bex Brands out of San Diego; together, they created the entire look and feel of the SeedWise brand and packaging,” Guy says. “Our dynamic operations team played a key role in helping implement the steps and processes needed to manufacture all of our products internally without needing to outsource labour or machinery. Lastly, our family and friends’ continuous feedback and support was key in helping shape and develop the SeedWise product lineup. We thank them for all the hours of taste-testing they gave us.”

Planet and community

The Ozery family is committed to implementing sustainable practices throughout its operation. According to Guy, the SeedWise Snacks seed-centered recipes help support that goal.

“Seeds require 20–90% less water to grow than nuts,” he shares. “That was something that really encouraged and pushed us to continue experimenting with creating new products that are not only good for consumers, but good for the planet as well.”

A certified B Corporation since 2019, Ozery Bakery has been a certified B Corporation. It has a list of sustainability initiatives that touch its day-to-day operations.

“We’ve come up with a list of sustainable initiatives that we stick by and adhere to in our day-to-day business operations. We have committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 beginning with the step of converting all of our electricity consumption to green energy this year,” Guy says.

In addition to helping the planet, the company also aims to support its local community. Guy says they have partnered with school breakfast programs, and donated products to local food banks, neighborhood shelters, and senior living centers. What’s more, they encourage their workers to give back.

“We’ve developed a solid volunteering program that encourages and inspires all of our team members to get out there and volunteer at least once or twice a quarter. This is a fantastic way for us to be able to connect with our community and offer them our support,” he says.

Moving forward

Guy says the SeedWise lineup will add cookies in March, starting with three gluten-free, keto-certified, allergen-free flavors: Double Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, and Birthday Cake.