The Use of Walnuts in Food Service

This continues our conversation with Mike Poindexter, CEO of Poindexter Nut Company and Selma that's Fresno County, a major handler of walnuts.

He shares with us some typical uses of walnuts in food service. “The salads, they make a good salad items,” said Poindexter. “Walnuts give some crunch, people who are eating a salad generally tend to be very health-oriented.

“They are not putting walnuts on donuts. They're putting peanuts because they're cheaper. They may not be as healthy as walnuts, but who buys a doughnut for health reasons,” he said.

“You'll see more walnuts in some of their snacking. You see them in Clif Bars and RX Bars and all the other bar manufacturers, there's more walnuts in those unites being used in those. Although they do have a lot of almonds being used in them more so than walnuts, just because of the longer shelf-life on them,” noted Poindexter.

Poindexter say you see a lot more walnut snack items on the store shelves.

“A few years ago, we started pushing our Crazy Go Nuts snack line. And a few other nut companies have come online after us and tried some similar offerings. Rather than complaining that we're being copied, I think that's a sign of a healthy market. You're not going to have a healthy market when there is only one brand in there.

“If you're the only brand on that shelf, that's a sign that your product is probably is not all that strong, but if you've got 10 people trying to get in there and also sell, that's a sign that there's a lot of demand and there's going to be a lot market development in that space,” he said.