Snacks focus: Want a flake in that?

Typical. You wait ages for a hand-held, cone-shaped, pizza-style snack, and then two come along at once.

The next - although undoubtedly not the last - battle in the ongoing war for the hearts and minds of jaded snack consumers is being fought between savoury snacks that look like ice-cream cones.

Given that we eat as much with our eyes as with our stomachs, being presented with a savoury snack in a format which every instinct tells you should be smothered in raspberry sauce and have a flake sticking out of it takes some getting used to.

However, when you stop to think about it, the format does make some sense. The handheld cones are relatively simple for customers to hold and eat. Pizza is a popular menu choice in the UK, but the pizza slice hasn't set the market on fire over here the way it has in other countries.

Making the case for the authenticity of its product is Westlers, which has launched the Kono Pizza. Developed by Italian hotelier and chef Rossano Boscolo, the Kono was launched in 2004 and has already proved highly successful with consumers across Europe and beyond.

Rossano had the inspiration during a brainstorming session intended to develop new and authentically Italian snack products.

"I thought about the food Italy is known for, and came up with pizza, pasta and ice-cream," says Rossano. "From there I came up with the idea for a pizza shaped like a cone."

One key challenge was to develop manufacturing equipment that could mass-produce the Kono without sacrificing quality. It is created like every authentic pizza, using a traditional dough which is transformed into a cone and filled with mozzarella cheese, layers of tomato sauce and the other ingredients.

For the UK, Westlers is importing Kono Pizza in three flavours: margherita, pepperoni and chicken. The frozen products can be thawed and cooked in a conventional oven, or cooked from frozen in a turbo oven.

It remains hot to serve for at least 20 minutes, and can be maintained in warming cabinets for two hours or more - allowing pubs to have plenty ready to serve at half-time during the football or between rounds in a quiz.

The challenger is the PizzaCone from Rollover, which is supplied ready-cooked and frozen in ham, margherita and ham & mushroom flavours.

Tony Owen, sales and marketing director at Rollover, commented: "The launch will add an exciting new concept to the catering sector. It's fun, hassle-free, looks great in a display warmer and is consistent with the high quality and appeal of all of our products."

Rollover has also launched Wrappas, a healthy hot snack alternative. Made with a meat filling and sauce wrapped in Lebanese kiln-fired flatbread, the Wrappa comes with four fillings - chicken, chicken tikka, mixed kebab and kofta - with a choice of smokey BBQ, peri peri or minted yoghurt sauce.