Minnesota-based Seven Sundays is extending its oat-centric breakfast portfolio into the pancake mix aisle with the launch of Oatcakes, a just-add-water format that delivers 10 grams of protein and more than 20% of the recommended daily value of fiber per serving. The SKU hits Target, Sprouts, and Fresh Thyme shelves this month at a $7.49 suggested retail price, with direct-to-consumer availability via the brand's own e-commerce channel.
Formulation Profile
Oatcakes are formulated without refined sugar, artificial flavors, gluten, or glyphosate — a clean-label positioning the brand has maintained across its cereal, granola, muesli, and protein oats lines. The mix carries non-GMO status and, consistent with the broader Seven Sundays portfolio, contains no artificial or synthetic preservatives or dyes. The just-add-water convenience format lowers the barrier to adoption for time-pressed households and reduces preparation complexity for foodservice-adjacent channels. Three SKU configurations will hit retail simultaneously: Original, Double Chocolate, and a limited-time Pumpkin Spice seasonal. Formulators sourcing high-protein oat blends for co-manufactured breakfast applications will recognize the underlying ingredient architecture — oats selected for elevated protein retention combined with leavening systems that produce the open crumb structure characteristic of conventional pancake mixes.
Supply and Sourcing Context
Seven Sundays has positioned upcycled ingredients as a core sourcing strategy since 2020, reporting more than 350 metric tons of food-waste-stream material diverted through that program to date. That supply discipline, combined with a glyphosate-free sourcing requirement, places meaningful upstream specification constraints on oat procurement — relevant context for contract manufacturers and ingredient buyers evaluating the brand as a co-pack partner or benchmarking clean-label oat specifications. The brand's existing retail footprint across Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Sprouts, and Whole Foods provides a distribution scaffold that reduces retail onboarding friction for the new format.
Market Positioning
The functional breakfast mix segment has attracted sustained formulator attention as protein and fiber claims gain traction with health-oriented grocery shoppers. Pancake and waffle mixes enriched with legume or grain proteins represent a fast-growing subsegment within the broader grain-based ingredients category, and oat-forward positioning aligns with continued consumer preference for recognizable, whole-food ingredient declarations. For ingredient suppliers active in the oat, plant-protein, and clean-label dry-mix spaces, the Oatcakes launch signals incremental demand for high-protein oat fractions and gluten-free leavening systems that can meet the dual brief of nutritional density and light, fluffy texture. Hannah Barnstable, Founder and CEO of Seven Sundays, framed the development as rooted in the founders' own household routine, noting the goal was to give families "the comfort and taste of pancakes with the nourishment of oats." That consumer brief — comfort delivery plus functional macros — is increasingly the specification language ingredient suppliers need to address when pitching into the better-for-you breakfast tier.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
