Coralville startup takes snack nutrition seriously

A Coralville startup is making inroads in the growing snack bar market using surprising ingredients.

B-Amazing! Foods Inc. of Coralville stands out in the pack of healthy bars by making its products with 50 percent fruit and vegetables. The ingredient lists include yellow beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and figs, partly for their antioxidant properties.

Since B-Amazing bars were introduced in 2010, distribution has grown to more than than 166 markets in 10 states. Recently, the bars were accepted for distribution in 55 Vitamin Cottage stores, and the company obtained a royalty agreement from the Iowa Economic Development Authority that will help it expand distribution to more East Coast markets.

Husband-and-wife founders Michael Termini and Naida Brown are both attorneys specializing in business law. They moved to Iowa from the Los Angeles area to raise their two sons, Blake and Jared, and have been telecommuting to their Los Angeles jobs for years.

The couple started the business in 2009, when Brown was recovering from cancer and becoming a "very clean eater" as a result. She liked the idea of eating health snack bars, but found that most of the bars in stores were too loaded up with empty carbohydrates and refined sugars.

"Candy bars in disguise," Brown calls them.

Michael, a home chef and Emeril La Gasse fan, took charge of the recipe formulation that was required to meld the strange-sounding ingredients into something that tasted delicious.

"The vegetable flavors are neutralized," Brown said. "We had to get flavor from the other parts."

Each of the bar has its own distinct personality and nutritional attributes, but all of them shun hydrogenated fats and refined sugars.

B-Amazing!'s Apricot Quinoa bar has been its most popular flavor. The bar uses quinoa, the protein-rich and easily-digested seed that was known by the Inca indians as the "mother of all grains."

The apple-coconut and cinnamon raisin versons of the B-Amazing bar are both vegan, meaning they contain no dairy products or other animal by-products.

The selection includes a lemon-cranberry bar. Although they are all different, all include substantial amounts of protein, fiber and Vitamin A.

Brown said the company plans to use a $150,000 royalty agreement loan from the Iowa Economic Development Authority's Demonstration Fund mainly to expand production and enter more markets in the Eastern United States. The company also plans to use the money for equipment and material purchases and to secure production labor, according to the authority.

B-Amazing! has long-term plans to enter the children's snack bar market. Brown said the bars are one way kids can get their vegetables without noticing.

The B-Amazing bars are carried locally at New Pioneer Co-op and some Hy-Vee stores, including the one in Coralville.

Coralville Hy-Vee dietitian Midori Gingerich said nutrition bars vary widely in price and nutritional value. Some are intended mainly as quick fixes for a hungry spot in the day, while others are more like meal replacements or performance food for atheletes.

"Think of how much you're getting," Gingerich said. "They're not all created equal."

Gingerich said one way to check the nutritional value of the bars is to look at their NuVal labels on the Hy-Vee shelf, which provides a nutrition score on a 1-100 scale.

B'Amazing bars are among the newer and more costly products, at around $3 for a 3-ounce bar. Gingerich indicated the higher price doesn't seem as high when calculated on a price-per-ounce basis, because the bars are larger than most rival products.

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