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Below you will find a brief summary of our conversation with Miriam Bouwens from Food2Smile. The full episode can be listened to via Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts.
About Miriam Bouwens and Food2Smile
The Dutch Miriam Bouwens began to question the relevance of her job after a long career in the shoe industry. She missed the feeling that she was contributing to the world, so she searched for what could give her that feeling. She focused on healthy nutrition and followed various courses. She further specialized and started working with children who are overweight.
During her work with children, she noticed that one particular question kept coming up: how can children snack and treat themselves responsibly? Because she couldn’t find any product on the market that met her criteria, she decided to make them herself, and that’s how Food2Smile was born.
Food2Smile has not stolen its name because it is Food2Smile’s mission to bring a smile to the face of everyone who tastes their snacks. They want to create a good feeling, a tasty moment for yourself that is also sugar-free and healthier.
Healthier snacking
Food2Smile wants to help people snack healthier. The healthiest option remains, of course, something like an apple, but Food2Smile’s snacks are by far healthier than regular snacks with artificial sweeteners, flavorings, colorings, …
When we snack, we are primarily looking for something tasty. So Food2Smile’s snacks are first and foremost incredibly delicious, but they also help make that snack moment healthier.
To offer those healthier snacks, Food2Smile adheres to a number of important health claims and strictly sticks to these values.
Sugar-free
First and foremost, their snacks are sugar-free. Food2Smile products never contain added or refined sugars. That does not mean they don’t offer sweet snacks, but those snacks will certainly never contain sweeteners like aspartame, acesulfame K, or flavor enhancers like E621.
The sweeteners they do use are isomalt for hard candy and stevia and maltitol for soft candy. The chocolate contains stevia.
Even the flavor enhancers they do use are always of natural origin.
Vegan
Moreover, 95% of the Food2Smile range is vegan, and in 2024 they want the entire range vegan to be. With this, they want to contribute their part to the environmental issues linked to meat consumption.
Gluten-free
More and more people have trouble processing gluten. We don’t need gluten, and many people often don’t realize they are intolerant. They often feel bloated, tired, have headaches… without linking it to an intolerance to gluten or lactose. That’s why Food2Smile also aims for most of their products gluten-freeto make.
Lactose-free
The entire Food2Smile range is almost lactose-free, except for 2 products with milk chocolate. They are also working hard to develop a lactose-free alternative with vegan chocolate.
High in fiber
Dietary fiber is an important part of a healthy diet. If a snack has a slightly higher sugar content (remember that not all sugars are bad), at JustBite we always check if the fiber content is high enough. And Food2Smile’s products fit perfectly here.
Thanks to fiber, energy is released more slowly in the body. Fiber promotes a healthy gut and helps prevent various chronic diseases. Many people consume too little fiber daily due to eating too few vegetables and fruits and consuming a lot of white bread, white rice, and so on.
By choosing a healthier snack from Food2Smile, you can more easily reach your daily recommended fiber intake.
Popped chips
Almost all JustBite snack boxes include the Popped Chips from Food2Smile. We are big fans, and so are our customers. Chips are probably the most snacked product in Belgium and the Netherlands, and it's wonderful that there is a healthier version that still offers that crunchy chip vibe.
Traditional chips contain starch, fat, sugar, E621, and salt. Food2Smile makes a healthier version of this popular snack by combining potato and soy and popping the chips instead of frying them. This results in a protein-rich product that is much lower in fat and contains no unnecessary additives.
Currently, Popped Chips come in 3 delicious flavors: classic, paprika, and salt & pepper. And next year, a 4th flavor is coming!
Popping vs frying
Traditional frying involves submerging the product in heated fat to make it crispy, which causes it to absorb a lot of fat.
Popping is a heat process that involves no fat. The product becomes crispy and has a long shelf life, but without absorbing fat.
Popped Chips still contain some fat, namely the fats naturally found in potatoes and soy, but no extra fat is absorbed during production. The result is a very low-fat product.
Jarige Job Foundation
Just as JustBite supports the Children’s Cancer Fund, Food2Smile also contributes to a good cause. It’s in the DNA of both JustBite and Food2Smile to do better and give back to society.
The Jarige Job Foundation ensures that children living in poverty can still celebrate their birthdays, both at home and with a treat at school. Food2Smile provides those healthy treats so children and schools get the chance to discover a healthier snack. Because Food2Smile, like JustBite, is strongly committed to this: knowledge sharing and simple tips to make healthy choices easier.
Conclusion
There’s a reason why Food2Smile’s Popped Chips are featured in our snack boxes. They’re not only incredibly tasty, but the philosophy, values, and vision of JustBite and Food2Smile align closely!
Miriam’s final tip is to start with small steps. Change doesn’t have to be perfect right away. By living healthier step by step, you can achieve a lot.
That is also what JustBite aims to achieve: helping people live healthier, bite by bite!
Also read the book by Miriam Bouwens, Sugar Under the Microscope
