Utz Brands Brings Full Snack Aisle Firepower to Sweets & Snacks Expo 2026

HANOVER, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2026--

Utz Brands, Inc., a leading U.S. manufacturer of branded salty snacks, will bring its most expansive portfolio yet to the 2026 Sweets & Snacks Expo, May 19–21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

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Spanning categories from better-for-you kettle chips to tortilla chips and pretzels, Utz Brands is meeting evolving consumer preferences with its portfolio of brands consumers know and love plus category-leading innovations. It will be sampling new and flagship products across the Utz Brands portfolio, including Utz ®, Zapp’s ®, Boulder Canyon ® and On The Border ® Chips & Dips, in the Exhibit Hall at Booth #2219.

Utz is meeting consumers’ evolving desires for snacks that deliver great taste and better-for-you options, with a new line of Protein Pretzels and Protein Cheese Curls. Utz Protein Pretzels come in three flavors: Honey Mustard, Cheddar, and Sea Salt, each providing 8–10 grams of protein per serving. Utz Protein Cheese Curls are available in two flavors, Cheddar and Hot & Spicy Cheddar, providing 9 grams of protein per serving. This innovation highlights the great taste and crunch of Utz pretzels and cheese snacks with the benefit of protein, delivering snacks without compromise.

In addition, Utz continues to surprise and delight consumers with their line of beloved potato chips with limited-edition flavors that perfectly capture the spirit of summer. New Sizzlin' Summer Burger flavored Rippled Potato Chips deliver flavor that captures the spirit of summer grilling. The brand is also bringing back fan-favorite Lemonade flavored Potato Chips in partnership with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting childhood cancer. A portion of Utz Lemonade Potato Chip sales, up to $40,000, will be donated to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, to support its mission of funding research and helping families in need.

Boulder Canyon ®, America’s fastest-growing salty snack brand and the No. 1 salty snack brand in the natural channel with more than $122 million in growth in 2025 1, continues to lead the better-for-you category with bold innovation and on-trend expansions. This includes new additions to its avocado oil chip portfolio with Boulder Batch Agave Sriracha flavored chips, Wavy Grillo’s Pickles ® Dill Pickle flavored chips and the launch of Boulder Canyon Sea Salt Kettle Chips cooked in beef tallow.

Boulder Canyon’s beef tallow kettle chips tap into growing consumer demand for snacks made without seed oils. The gluten-free Sea Salt chips are kettle-cooked in small batches with premium beef tallow and made with non-GMO potatoes.

Boulder Canyon is also featuring its all-new Flavored Tortilla Chips line, available in Nacho, Sweet & Spicy Chili and Chili Lime, at the show. The full retail rollout is planned for July 2026, complementing its existing tortilla chip line.

“Utz Brands is thrilled to showcase both our fan favorites and new on-trend innovations at the Sweets & Snacks show,” said Stacey Schultz senior vice president of marketing at Utz Quality Foods, LLC, a subsidiary of Utz Brands, Inc. “From our commitment to non-seed oil innovation from Boulder Canyon to our Americana flavors of summer with Backyard Burger and the return of Lemonade from our flagship Utz brand, we are building a portfolio of snacks that continue to surprise and delight snack lovers.”

All Utz Brands products are available for purchase online at UtzSnacks.com and leading retailers nationwide. For more information, follow Utz on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, Zapp’s on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, Boulder Canyon on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and On The Border on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

About Utz Brands, Inc.

Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE: UTZ) manufactures a diverse portfolio of savory snacks through popular brands including Utz ®, On The Border ® Chips & Dips, Zapp’s ® and Boulder Canyon ®, among others.

After a century with a strong family heritage, Utz continues to have a passion for exciting and delighting consumers with delicious snack foods made from top-quality ingredients. Utz’s products are distributed nationally through grocery, mass merchandisers, club, convenience, drug and other channels. Based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, Utz has multiple manufacturing facilities across the U.S. to serve its growing customer base. For more information, please visit www.utzsnacks.com or call 1‐800‐FOR‐SNAX.

Utz Brands Brings Full Snack Aisle Firepower to Sweets and Snacks Expo 2026

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a former assistant principal in Virginia accused of ignoring warnings that a 6-year-old student brought a loaded gun to school that was later used to shoot his first grade teacher.

Ebony Parker is charged with eight counts of felony child neglect, one for each of the bullets in the gun brought into Richneck Elementary schoolteacher Abby Zwerner 's classroom in Newport News in January 2023, prosecutors have said. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison upon conviction.

The charges allege Parker “did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life,” according to court documents.

Parker's attorneys were in court Monday morning and could not be reached for comment about her defense. But her attorneys in a civil trial last year argued that the shooting was “unforeseeable.” They argued Parker did not have a legal duty to protect Zwerner and told the jury in that case "the law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”

Criminal charges against school officials after a school shooting are quite rare, experts say. The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding community and the country at large, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his teacher.

Last November, a jury awarded $10 million to Zwerner, siding with her claims in a lawsuit that Parker ignored repeated warnings that the child had a gun.

Zwerner was shot as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

Parker was the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal as defendants.

The lawsuit said Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being told about the gun. Zwerner’s attorneys said Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.

Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun from a reading specialist who had been tipped off by students. The shooting occurred a few hours later. Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office.

Zwerner is scheduled to testify in the criminal case, according to court records.

The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he climbed to the top of a dresser to retrieve the gun from his mother's purse.

FILE - Former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker looks back into the courtroom during Abby Zwerner's lawsuit against her on Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool, File)