Dalicious is an organic snack with dates as its main ingredient, as the name suggests. The company was founded six years ago and recently a new, third flavour was introduced, together with handy take-away packaging. With the latter, owner Muriël Schueler wants to tap into new sales channels.

More changes are in the pipeline. Dalicious is currently a one-man operation, but that should change soon. Schueler is looking for a team and/or business partner and also wants to expand the product line.

How did Dalicious come into being?
"From personal loss to a nice and guilt free snack. At the end of 2017, that wasn't there for me. What was there were breakfast bars, big and I didn't like them very much, often full of sugars and other unhealthy additives. I was also surprised how many unhealthy snacks are for sale full of bad fats, added sugars, E-numbers and colourings and fragrances. I thought: there must be another way, because we have so many tasty things that grow on a tree or bush. I prefer fresh and pure food, also for my children. When my first child went to daycare in 2012, I also made snacks for her with nuts, kernels, seeds and fruit as an alternative to the unhealthy snacks she got."

"I started making it in my own kitchen, with what I had in the house. I didn't have the idea to make it for others, but I let some friends taste it at home and they really liked it. Somewhere a fire was lit in me. I literally went to the market and tested it there. In the meantime I made the products myself in an external kitchen and sold them on a small scale to events and caterers. It was manual work and quite expensive. That's why I started looking for a producer. Then I got Crisp as my first major customer."

What bumps did you encounter?
"The composition, shape and portion size are unique. What I didn't know at the time is that you can't use a standard production mold or process. You have to develop that yourself. It was a search: which production partner can and wants to produce this? That was very difficult, because I am "stuck" with a number of things, such as the shape and the composition. I don't use any corrective or fillers to make it firmer, for example. If that hadn't worked out, I would have had to make a compromise. I look back on it with a smile, but that was very different back then. I am very happy that it all turned out the way it did. In retrospect, it is a good thing that I didn't have any knowledge of the matter, because otherwise I might not have made the product so unique and innovative."

In 2021 you received the organic label, when the producer was certified, but some ingredients were already organic from the beginning. Where do the raw materials, such as dates, sunflower seeds and almonds come from?
"The dates come from Saudi Arabia. Cocoa comes from Peru and coconut from Sri Lanka. We try to get the rest as close as possible. Almonds from Spain, sunflower seeds from Italy and Hungary, lemon oil from Germany. They are all family businesses, with which our production partner works intensively. They know all the suppliers and also visit them. They have the same vision as we do to add value to the entire chain."

What is that vision?
" Clean label and less is more are very important in our vision; how you can make something tasty and good with just four pure ingredients. Many products have a huge list of ingredients. I hope that Dalicious inspires and potential customers also see that we need to move towards more appreciation for food and pure and natural ingredients.