Snacking culture is evolving globally, as time-pressured consumers opt out of the notion of three square meals a day and blur the lines between conventional meals and snacks.
Modern consumers expect more convenient, inspirational and healthier snacking experiences, with key drivers including product flavour, diversity and balanced diet requirements that provide fuel throughout the day.
APAC’s snack market is growing the fastest, thanks to affluent middle-class urbanites and developing countries boosting consumption. Amid increasingly flexible eating routines, brands have new opportunities to explore diverse occasions and purpose in snacking, with those that act like a start-up and break category norms likely to win going forward. So what are consumers looking for?
They are health-conscious – and looking for transparency.
Companies are striving to meet the growing demand for transparency and clean eating. A clear example of this is Hershey’s, Nestlé’s and Mars’ response on pledging to remove artificial ingredients and improve transparency.
Healthy snacks are emerging as a quick refuel for time-poor consumers. Contributing factors also include longer working hours, the rise of single urbanites and emotional eating. For Asian consumers, sophisticated and healthy snack packs including superfoods, nuts and vegetables are the most sought-after, with 63 per cent of China’s urban consumers snacking on fruits and vegetables.
Besides nutrient-dense and all-natural snacks, functional ingredients with health benefits are also expanding across all categories. A standout is plant-based snacks: with the rise in meatless and flexitarian diets, these animal-free snacks that pack a nutritional punch will become more important than ever in the snacking market in the next few years.
Want to know more? Download Gen Z Snacking Trends complimentary reports here.
