The New Era of Snack Food

Snack is usually considered a small portion of food consumed between meals. The snack foods can be sweet and salty, homemade and readymade, packaged or unpackaged. Savory snacks, frozen snacks, and confectionery snacks are a few of the widely popular snacks categories in the market. 

The global snack food market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period from 2021-2027. The market anticipates showing some promising growth in the upcoming years, owing to the changes in lifestyle and health concerns among people. Moreover, manufacturers are more focused on launching healthy snack products with innovative packaging styles. 

Snack food traces its history thousands of years back. The United States is the leading region in the Snack Food Market, well known for its innovations since 1995. Apart from that, Pretzels are known as the oldest snacks. An Italian monk who was also a baker first created the pretzels in the 6th century. Moreover, the flavored chips primarily appeared around 40–45 years back in Europe. By the arrival of the year 1980s, snacks became a part of daily life. 

Major companies thriving in the snack food market are Kellogg Co., PepsiCo Inc., Nestle SA, General Mills Inc., Mondelez International, Conagra Brands Inc., and Link Snacks Inc. 

Popular Innovations In The Snack Food Market

Quality, flavor, and distinctiveness have always been key drivers for most companies. However, several businesses stand out by enhancing social responsibility to promote their business. 

• Dutch confectionary company Tony’s Chocolonely’s began a campaign with the tagline, “Crazy about chocolate, serious about people.” that narrated the business’ preference of social responsibility. The campaign was all about standing against slavery, child labor, and exploitation.  
• Potato chips have always been widely popular around the world. Various innovations with chips have developed unique flavors in the market. Hain Celestial Group Inc, under the name Terra Chips, has been expanding its portfolio by adding various whole root vegetable chips. Kabocha, a Japanese pumpkin, has also been a part of those innovations. 
• Farther Farms, a New York-based firm, developed an innovative technology to purify food with the help of supercritical carbon dioxide. This technology alone replaced the need for freezing, refrigeration, and the use of artificial preservatives. The process helped in extending the shelf-life of the product and reduced energy consumption. 
• Frederick W. Rueckheim, the man behind Cracker Jack, also contributed to the industry by offering unique heavenly flavors to consumers. 
• The snack combined the flavorful goodness of Peanuts and the crisp texture of popcorn. It gained wide popularity by the year 1923, with more than 138 million boxes sold annually. 

Internet In The Snack Food Industry

The advent of the internet has always been considered powerful for users. Moreover, the wide applications of the internet in education, information technology, business, and households have enhanced its adoption among the population. Various start-ups created innovative strategies to start their snack businesses online. The strategy was not only convenient for consumers, but it also saved their time. True Element, an online startup for snack food, began its journey on the virtual model. 

The Vegan Culture

Often, snack foods contain excessive fat and preservatives, which make them unhealthy. Even non-vegetarian food lovers are shifting their interest to vegan food to consume more nutrients. Recently a food innovation used plant-based products instead of meat strips to cook tasty and healthy jerky. The world now seems to be adopting meat-free ways to avoid saturated fat. Apart from that, tofu has become a widely adopted product for snacks. 

In addition, brands are also adopting vegan culture. Native Snack, a renowned snack brand, created the world’s first vegan prawn crackers to draw the attention of the vegan audience. The launch of the prawn-free option helped the brand to save 2,226MT CO2e and 460,000 prawns.

Vegan and plant-based cuisine have become increasingly popular in recent years. A plant-based diet can offer many health benefits and increase your chances of living a long life. JUST Egg is the most adopted vegan food that serves as a vegan substitute for eggs. The product from Just. Inc. manufactures from plant-based ingredients like water, canola oil, mung bean protein, gums, and seasonings.

Burger King has been leading in the meat replacement game. Burger King earlier offered vegan burgers, and now the team is working on the launch of vegan Chicken Nuggets. The American multinational fast-food chain is going ahead with a vegan-friendly culture. The brand offers a variety of vegan substitutes like French toast sticks and burgers made without eggs, vegan BBQ sauces, and sweet-and-sour sauces.

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