Why do the foods that people love most have to be so bad for them?
This is a question that both children and adults constantly ask themselves.
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At the age of 13, Nicky Bronner was forced to come up with an idea after he had a dispute with his parents over his sweet-tooth and their push to have him eat healthier snacks. With the help of his father, Michael Bronner, they created the Unreal Brands Inc. Nicky and his father went on a mission to research just how unhealthy candy really is. They learned that the worst parts of candy, like the partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, chemical preservatives and the loads of sugar are not added for the enhancement of taste. These ingredients are added to make candy cheaper to produce and last longer on the shelves.
The Bronners started calling chefs around the world, trying to prove their theory that a candy could be “unjunked.” They hoped to find a chef that could create a candy that tasted as good as their favorites without all of the extra preservatives.
Eventually, their heavy research and phone calls led them to a well-known professor of food science at a university in England. This professor referred them to Adam Melonas, a master chef who worked in Spain.
After hearing the Bronner’s idea, Adam was inspired and formed a team of chefs from all around Europe. The job to create these new snacks took over two years to complete, a year longer than Melonas anticipated.
“The color was the most tormenting thing, because I needed to come up with an attractive alternative to artificial dyes,” Melonas comments for a journalist in the Wall Street Journal.
Now, in place of the artificial preservatives, the Unreal Brand has added healthier ingredients to the snacks, including cacao, real caramel and peanuts. They have also added more protein and fiber so that now, each candy has a low glycemic index.
Currently, the company operates out of a narrow office on the fifth floor of a historic commercial building in downtown Boston.
The company hopes too create more foods in other categories besides candy, such as soda.
The start-up product has already landed in many popular stores such as Target, Kroger, and CVS.
