Formulating products with the ever-increasing demands of today’s marketplace is no easy task.

It’s rare for a food product to check so many boxes in the minds of consumers that it becomes, essentially, universally beloved. But such is the case for snack and nutritional bars.

Private label grows more competitive with snacks geared toward health and wellness, clean label and gluten-free.

What does clean-label mean today, and how will it change in the coming months and years?

Bakery giant Panera Bread pledges to commit to ‘clean’ and 'simple' ingredients as it will remove artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives from its food by 2016.