Daniel Kitay was his own first customer, creating confectionery company Funday Sweets out of frustration at a lack of low sugar lollies. Pippa Haupt writes.
Daniel Kitay’s love of lollies spurred his creation of Funday.
Daniel Kitay loves lollies but was looking for a healthier option. The Funday brand was born out of Kitay’s frustration at the dearth of low sugar alternatives in the confectionery market. Searching for like-minded consumers, Kitay started researching sugar-free confectionery reviews online.
“There was about seven out of ten people that were currently eating sugar-free products but were feeling really sick, and I was like, well, hold on. If so many people are giving these sugar-free products bad reviews, and there’s a growing trend towards healthier products, then there’s an opportunity to create a healthier product that doesn’t make you feel sick,” says Kitay.
Funday produces healthier versions of childhood favourites: red frogs, jelly snakes, and peach hearts, and aims to ‘actually give you something beneficial’, with none of the typical ingredients you’d find in a regular confectionery product.
“That’s really something unusual and interesting about our product.
“Simply, we substitute the refined ingredients that you find in a typical product for our ingredients, the benefit being you reduce the sugar content but include ingredients that also contain naturally occurring fibre – which is how we get a five health star rating,” says Kitay.
Also unusual about Funday Sweets are the serving sizes.
Through speaking to customers and subscribers, Kitay says buyers are often confused by the nutritional information on some lolly packaging. Labels provide the sugar content for ‘one serving’ – but a serving is often only two jelly snakes.
Consumer confusion around product labels is becoming a prominent issue, especially in regards to sugar.
A recent study led by Deakin University found that sugar labelling on food packaging has little impact on consumers’ purchasing behaviour, indicating consumers need to be better supported by brands and regulatory bodies in order to assist them in making better, healthier choices.
The study was published while Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) completes its administrative assessment and targeted consultations for its Proposal P1058 – which considers the inclusion of ‘added sugars’ information in a product’s nutritional information panel (NIP).
The Deakin research also revealed a high level of support from consumers for updated labelling policies, with 85 per cent of consumers in the study agreeing with the statement, ‘we need to set higher standards for how the food industry labels the food we eat’.
Funday’s solution to nutritional label confusion was to make one serving = one bag.
For a packet of Funday’s jelly snakes, one bag is 50 grams of lollies, with 3.3 grams of sugar – taking the mental load, and confectionery guilt, off consumers.
Funday is on target to be stocked in over 3000 stores across the country by end 2022, including Woolworths, Ampol, and Chemist Warehouse in Australia and New Zealand, with further plans for expansion.
This story first appeared in the September 2022 edition of Food & Drink Business magazine.
