Thanasi Foods LLC, the manufacturer and supplier of a variety of healthy and tasty branded snack foods has announced the addition of all-natural BIGS® Lightly Salted Pumpkin Seeds to its product line of roasted seeds and will be available to distributors and retailers in mid-October.

Like other BIGS seeds, the all-natural BIGS® Lightly Salted Pumpkin Seeds are 100% grown in the U.S. The BIGS Brothers' passion to find the plumpest, sweetest pumpkin seeds, led them the Willamette Valley, in western Oregon where the rich soils are known for being the best to grow the finest confection pumpkin seeds available.

"After much experimentation, we found a truly remarkable combination of lightly salting and home-style roasting to bring out the real, delicious flavor of the pumpkin in every seed," says Justin Havlick, president and founder of THANASI Foods and one of the "BIGS Brothers." "Our primary goal was to deliver home-roasted pumpkin seed taste every day of the year that consumers normally only get to enjoy in the fall."

Pumpkin seeds are loaded with a variety of vitamins and minerals. A half cup of pumpkin seeds supplies 92% of the recommended necessary daily intake of magnesium plus an assortment of other vitamins and minerals such as zinc, iron, B vitamins, copper, vitamin K and manganese. Eating pumpkin seeds also adds fiber to the diet and can help improve cholesterol levels and lower any inflammation by providing high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids.

"Our BIGS pumpkin and sunflower seeds offer consumers two very different snack options," explains Havlick. "Both taste great as a hold-over snack, but since you can eat the entire pumpkin seed it makes them a perfect healthy and satisfying alternative to chips."

 The launch of the all-natural BIGS® Lightly Salted Pumpkin Seeds marks the company's first non-sunflower seed in the BIGS product line. Launched in March 2009, BIGS offers fire roasted, jumbo-size sunflower seeds in a variety of exciting flavors including: Original Salted & Roasted; Heinz® Salt & Vinegar; Vlasic® Dill Pickle; Bacon Salt® Sizzlin' Bacon; FRANK'S REDHOT® Buffalo Wing; Sea Salt & Black Pepper; Hidden Valley® Ranch; and Old Bay® Catch Of The Day.