The 40-30-30 nutritional philosophy was popularized by Dr. Barry Sears, a biochemist, and later expounded in his Zone diet books.

[1] Davidson, Lamb and two other investors acquired rights to a bar based on Sears' zone diet.

[2] The company was originally called Bio Foods Inc. and was located in Santa Barbara, California.

Another factor accounting for the premium may have been that Kraft's purchase was part of a rush by large food manufacturers such as General Mills, PepsiCo and the Adolph Coors Company to snap up well-established natural foods companies such as Cascadian Farm, Mother's Oatmeal and Blue Moon Beer respectively.

It slipped to third position in the category, with Clif Bar and Nestle's PowerBar surpassing it in sales.