As Millennials (23- to 40-year-olds) lead the charge to snacking and away from traditional sit-down meals. (According to Mintel, the Millennial generation is the most likely to snack four or more times a day (25%). Gen X consumers trail at 10 percent, followed by Boomers at a mere 9 percent.) Along the way, Millennials are influencing the makeup of snack foods. Since snacking isn’t only an indulgence for younger consumers, it’s also sustenance—they’re upping the ante. First and foremost they want snack foods that are tasty, but now they also want them to be portable and served with a side of healthy. Younger consumers have a strong interest in snacks that are nutritious and provide energy. And let’s not forget, this generation is also keenly interested in what goes into their food and where it’s from.
Euromonitor International predicts this snacking shift will generate strong demand for portable foods “like breakfast biscuits or snack bars that can provide a nutritious boost of energy and help consumers feel full. As a result, growth across sweet biscuits, fruit snacks and snack bars [category] is expected to continue, with retail volumes increasing by 4 percent between 2016 and 2021.”
So we’ve got convenient/portable, nutritious, satiating, and flavorful—and one final snacking statistic to chew on. This is from Mintel’s recent The State of Snacking Webinar. Consumers were asked, “which flavors do you look for when purchasing a snack.” The top three responses were sweet (65%), salty (64%) and fruity (49%).
Tree Top Fruit Ingredients offer you the perfect snack ingredient that provides taste, texture, color, and a good-for-you “health halo”. Our fruit ingredients come in an extensive range of shapes, sizes, and flavors.