According to Tyson, the Yappah! Chicken Crisps did not offer ‘the viability for continued investment.’
The snack – created by a chef trained at French Laundry & Morimoto – was the first to be born from the Tyson Innovation Lab launched in 2017 to drive innovation and get new products to market faster.
Yappah! was originally intended to be the umbrella ‘of the company’s disruptive innovation model’ under which future products would be launched to help address social and sustainability challenges related to food.
Fighting food waste
The company developed the protein-based crisps from ‘forgotten ingredients’ – such as upcycled chicken breast trim, rescued carrot and celery purees from juicing and spent malted barley from brewing Molson Coors.
The brand’s name was adapted from the word ‘yapa,’ which is a South American Andes tradition that refers to a little something extra a merchant gives to a favorite customer to avoid waste.
The range’s four variants – Chicken Carrot Curry, Chicken Celery Mojo, Chicken IPA White Cheddar and Chicken Sunshine Shandy Beer – were also packed in recyclable aluminium tallboy cans.
Yappah! underwent a series of trials before being officially launched on crowdsourcing platform IndieGogo in May 2018, followed by a 90-day trial in a Chicago grocery store. The range was also available through Kickstarter, a larger and more socially conscious platform – all of which the company said ‘validated user interest in the brand’.
However, it has now decided not to move forward with the brand ‘for a variety of reasons, including overall viability.’
Tyson Foods told us food waste is still a focus.