Mood Food Company bills its snacks as “not your average granola bar” – and its offerings are certainly not average. The small business claims to be the first functional snack food brand for mental wellbeing. Its products tout improvements in mood, relaxation, energy and overall health.
We spoke to founder Stuart Smyth about why the company can make these claims and how it sells a product in this particular niche. But first: where did the idea for a mood-boosting snack come from?
Stuart explains that he and his co-founder and wife, Danielle, noticed their children struggling with mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. While searching for ways to support their kids’ mental health, they noticed a gap in the offerings: mood-boosting food.
“Danielle and I started looking through the aisles of Australian supermarkets,” Stuart says. “We saw a lot of healthy and nutritious snacks and a lot of things you might see these days, protein for muscle or collagen for skin, but there’s nothing specifically formulated to help enhance mental wellbeing.”
With no other options, the couple decided to create some mood-boosting snacks themselves, and thus Mood Food was born.
Making claims about health
As laws about claims on packaging are quite strict in Australia, Mood Food worked with a legal expert to be able to make its claims about mood benefits.
Stuart explains, “We made a submission to establish a new health claim where we could prove that the ingredients we have in our mood boost bites actually do contain ingredients that are the precursors to improving serotonin and dopamine, which are our happy hormones.”
The process was long and extensive, but Stuart says it was worth it to “lead the guard” in terms of snacks that promote mental wellbeing. And lead the guard Mood Food does.
“It’s something our customers, particularly, Woolworths and Costco, really appreciate: us leading the market and driving all the consumer insights that we see in the marketplace – that people want these types of products,” Stuart explains.
What kind of people are buying these products? Stuart explains that his core demographic skews female, the bulk of whom are between 30 and 50 years old. But mental health is everybody’s concern, Stuart adds, so Mood Food has people from all walks of life buying its products.
Nimble moves combat downtown in purchases
Stuart and Danielle have recently noticed a downturn in purchase frequency, which they attribute to the high cost of living.
“Everyone’s a little bit more mindful of their household budget,” Stuart says. “They still want to have their indulgences, but they tend to cut back a little bit on how often and how regularly they do.”
In response to the downturn, the brand has pivoted from being multi-pack only to including single-serve bars in its range. The change has been well-received, as has the decision to try, as much as possible, not to pass down manufacturing cost increases to customers.
“The cost of manufacturing is very difficult,” Stuart says. “I’m sure a lot of people would say the same. You know that everyone’s feeling the rising costs of raw materials and ingredients and packaging and labour and freight and shipping.”
Mood Food also exports overseas. It’s found traction in Japan, Korea and Singapore, among other places. This has been another strategy to help counter purchase-frequency slowdown.
“It’s not easy,” Stuart says. “Everyone else around the world is experiencing cost-of-living pressures as well, and it’s difficult. But yeah, we’re getting a great reception from our import partners in all of those markets.”
In spite of the challenges, Stuart and Danielle are single-mindedly committed to their business. In 2025, they’re looking to launch some new products, both in Australia and overseas. And Stuart says they’re hoping to keep their “small-business identity” as they continue to grow.
“As we grow and continue to expand over the years, I really want us to maintain that mindset of being nimble and dynamic and agile,” he says. “Where you can respond to the market, respond to changes, but then also be ahead of them as well, and lead people on the journey.”
This article first appeared in issue 47 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
