Hunter Foods has hit international fame with its gourmet, premium-to-you approach to snacking, expanding from its former regional focus to presence in over 65 global markets over the past decade.
While the firm previously closely followed trends to create its products, such as the popular truffle range which saw its Black Truffle flavour go viral in South Korea and Japan, the firm has opted to go hot and bold with its latest innovation.
“What we have created this time is really for the true chilli lovers out there, as we have made some of the spiciest snacks in the market,” Hunter Foods Managing Director Ananya Narayan told us.
“There are other extremely spicy snacks on the market of course, but ours retain their premium element by also having multiple layers and dimensions of taste to them, not just a flat taste that is just spice, as this multi-dimensionality is truly what makes them gourmet.”
The spicy range is dubbed Chilli Curated and contains three main products for now, all crafted to bring out multiple layers of flavour: Tangy Hot, Chili Lime Pickle, and Spicy Korean Gochujang.
“For instance, Chilli Lime Pickle will give the consumer a flavour experience that starts with sweetness, moves to tanginess, then the spiciness will hit, and they will also get a hit of mustard from the pickle,” he said.
“In addition to the multi-dimensionality, it was also very important to us that these flavours were more rooted in Asian chilli flavours as a lot of spicy snacks here tend to come from larger western companies and their chilli flavours are Mexican-based so this is something quite different.”
Spiciness as a whole is undoubtedly a global trend and Narayan believes this is because the human palate has a natural interest and fascination with chilli — but this does not mean that everyone is a chilli lover.
“The reason there are so many chilli snacks in the market is because people like spice, but most of these come with a bit of chilli despite it being the main focus in the name — this is not directed at chilli lovers like the Chilli Curated range is,” he added.
All three products in the new range were finalists in the Gulfood Innovation Awards 2026 snacking category.
All three also have a Scoville scale printed on their labels, ranking these as Medium (Tangy Hot Sauce), Hot (Chilli Lime Pickle) and Super Hot (Spicy Korean Gochujang).
Being better-for-you in the UAE
Hunter Foods’ home base is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and was one of the first brands in the market to pioneer an entire gourmet portfolio focused on being better-for-you, taking initiatives such as switching to sunflower oil and using a hand cooked process for its chips, as well as being MSG-free and free of artificial flavours and colours.
This approach has paid off handsomely for them, as the UAE is currently making a natural shift towards healthier snacking trends in alignment with global changes.
“There is a big push by the government to reduce sugar in confectionery and salt in snacks, so going lower sodium is a big thing here now,” Narayan said.
“Because we’ve always been better-for-you to begin with, most of our products are already at an okay salt level to meet these needs, and we are also working on some of those still at a higher content — this is really what our gourmet range is all about, so we will always place our focus on having go-to better-for-you snacks for our consumers.”
