Baking & Snack - June 2015 - 62

ALTERNATIVE SNACKS

The state of snacking
According to the State of the Industry report, presented by Jared Koerten, senior analyst, Euromonitor
International, at the Snack Food Association's annual
conference this year and published in the May 2015
issue of Snack World, savory snacks are largely responsible for the growth in the snack market. With 3% sales
growth in 2008-14, savory snacks represented the
third-fastest rising category in the snack industry, sitting
behind bars and yogurt.
Much of this growth may be explained by consumers'
demand for portable food and snacks as meal replacements. This can be seen in the decline in sales of traditional breakfast foods such as RTE cereal and the rise in sales
of bars and yogurt, as reported by Euromonitor. This meal
replacement idea, however, comes with a catch.
"If we're going to snack in place of meals, consumers want something that will keep them full, such as
high-protein snacks like yogurt, nuts and meat snacks,"
Mr. Koerten said. When breaking down snack growth by
nutritional attributes, protein outpaced all others with
an 8% increase.
The interest in better-for-you snacks as meal replacements also has consumers attempting to educate themselves on what is healthy, and unfortunately, they often
rely on the Internet.
"Consumers want information about food, but they're
turning to 'Dr. Google' to get it," said Phil Lempert,
Supermarket Guru, continuing on to say that the misinformed consumer is a dangerous player in the food
industry. Mr. Lempert urged snack producers to clean up
their labels and front-of-package claims by making them
less sensational and more practical.
"You need clarity to dispel the wrong information
consumers are getting from technology and Google," he
warned.
Changing palates are also challenging the snack market
and pushing the boundaries of flavors and ingredients.
Growing interest in cooking shows, home-cooking and
gourmet ingredients have boosted the sophistication of
the American palate. This has, in turn, upped the ante for
snack food flavors. Mr. Lempert identified smoked as the
next big thing. Mr. Koerten pointed to consumers' interest in spicy and sweet-and-savory crossovers as places
where snack producers could innovate.
As consumer palates and preferences settle into a
new normal, Mr. Lempert detailed three ways snack
producers can gain traction with consumers: catering to
health and wellness, creating the "wow" experience and
celebrating food.
"Every package of snack food you sell should be a
celebration," he said.

62 Baking & Snack June 2015 / www.bakingandsnack.com

"I would call them BFY snacks because
anymore it's clearly a move toward BFY
than alternative," Mr. Breen said.
As consumers continue to eat fewer
structured meals and more snacks, they
also want more substantial snacks that
deliver the nutrition they are missing
by skipping meals. Snacks that deliver
vegetables, protein, ancient grains and
other "healthy buzz" ingredients and
nutrients set themselves apart from
others on the shelf. Some of these ingredients are a bit different than the traditional potato chip, which lands them in
the alternative snack category.
"If you look at the total snacks category, growth is in the single digits,
yet natural snacks are growing at more
than 20%," Mr. Hartmann said. "That
includes tortilla chips and potato chips,
but it also encompasses alternative
snacks like veggie straws and chips.
These are very different from potato
chips because we bring in whole vegetables and slice them, fry them and
season them. So this would fall into the
alternative snack category as well."
Their alternative nature lends these
snacks to use of healthier trendy ingredients. It gives them room to play with
new flavor profiles and nutrition that
these ingredients provide.
"The profiles of potato chips are not
as flexible as some of the snack foods,
such as tortilla or extruded snacks
where you can include whole grains
or vegetables or other healthier attributes," said Fritz Kohmann, CFO,
Shearer's Foods LLC, Massillon, OH.
"Alternative, or the fringe category, is
easier to get into. So, we can try new
things, develop niche products and go
into external products."
The ingredients grabbing consumer
attention these days continue to be vegetables, ancient and whole grains, and
beans - anything that screams simpler,
cleaner and higher positive nutrients
like protein and fiber.
In vegetable snacks, producers keep
things fresh by using more exotic vegetables. While tomato and spinach have
long been stand-by materials for these

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