What's New In Snacks? Consumers Seeking Healthier Options
The snacking habits of consumers continue evolving and this is opening new opportunities for retailers, but also providing challenges to how products are merchandised in-store and online.
Walk the snack aisles of grocery stores and mass merchants today and you’ll continue to find the traditional mix of salty snacks such as potato chips, pretzels, and others. But many shoppers today are looking for snacks that are healthier and are not limiting themselves to the items on the shelves in aisles labeled “snacks.”
Jodie Madden, senior vice president of Consumer Marketing at Ibotta, said the growing demand for healthy snacks is a trend to watch in the category.
“It’s not only healthier snacks, but more specifically those offering higher protein,” she said. “We are also seeing more food groups coming into the snack category as well.”
An example of the growing consumer appetite for healthy snacks is seen in Ibotta data that shows chips marketed as “better for you” grew 11% in sales year-over-year, while crackers that were marketed as “better for you” grew 9%.
Additionally, other products in the realm of snacking are also experiencing growth, driven by consumers shopping for healthier alternatives. Madden noted sales of trail mixes were up 11% in 2024 and annual jerky sales grew at the beefy rate of 22%.
“The protein properties of these snacks are having an impact, especially for those who are taking GLP-1 medications, which encourage people to switch to high-protein snacks,” she said.
The growing demand for healthier snacks is also being driven by Generation Z, a group that more so than its predecessor generations is focused on their health and the ingredients of the food they eat.
“There is a portion of the younger generations that want to have healthier snacking options versus prior generations,” said Sally Lyons Wyatt, global executive vice president & chief advisor of Consumer Goods & Foodservice Insights with Circana. “They are choosing products that align with their goals and needs more so than previous generations who ate a snack because it tasted great.”
“Private label is not your good old-fashioned private label anymore. Private label is more relevant, the ingredients are better quality and they are innovating outside of a me-too product.”
— Sally Lyons Wyatt, Circana
With new demands from younger generations already impacting the types of snacks retailers are stocking, and also how retailers market products across the store that are snackable, this is expected to further drive innovation in the category, said Alexandra Trott, director of Insights at 84-51.
“What I'm hearing lately is consumers are moving away from ultra-processed foods and ingredients in their foods,” Trott said. “I think there's going to be a continued clean up of what's in snacks. People are reading labels and want products that don’t have 100 ingredients in them.”
While some consumers seek out bagged snacks that have fewer ingredients and are positioned as a healthier alternative, some shoppers are turning to the produce section to meet their midday cravings. Fresh food offers shoppers choices that are easier to make and don’t require time to read product packaging.
“People know fresh food is from the Earth and it’s easier to understand what your choices are,” Trott said.
With consumers driving evolution in snacks by seeking healthier options, they also continue to seek products that provide convenience and make snacking easy. Single packs and ready-to-eat packs are affordable options and growing in popularity, Trott noted.
“We’re seeing this focus on convenience in many of the traditional snack categories along with products such as cheese, nuts, and fruits that are sold in little snack packers,” she said.
As consumers seek out healthier solutions to meet their snacking needs, product pricing continues to be a big issue, which is opening new opportunities for retailers and their private label assortments. And in some segments of the snack business, there is a lot of runway to grow.
According to the Private Label Manufacturers Association’s 2025 Private Label Report, the salty snacks category had more than $2.7 billion in sales in 2024, accounting for only 7% of total dollar share in the segment.
Other snack-related categories in 2024 were smaller in dollar size but larger in dollar share percentage. Private label cookie sales were $2.67 billion last year, or 20.4% of total dollar share, and private label snack nuts/seeds/corn nuts were $2.2 billion, or 37.7% of total dollar share.
Ibotta data shared by Madden showed the growth private label products have seen in the snack category in less than five years. In 2021, store brand products accounted for 7.2% of sales in the snack, cookies, and chips segment. That doubled in 2022 and has stabilized at 15%, according to Ibotta figures.
“There is so much room in these categories for private label to grow,” she said. “I expect that is something retailers will be targeting with some of their brands.”
Experts agree that while pricing remains a key factor in drawing consumers to retail private brands, other factors such as unique flavors and product quality are teaming with cost savings to keep shopping coming back for more.
“Private label is not your good old-fashioned private label anymore,” Circana’s Lyons Wyatt said. “Private label is more relevant, the ingredients are better quality and they are innovating outside of a me-too product.”
Beyond boosting the quality of products, retailers are developing private label assortments in tiers to give shoppers the choice of products at good, better, and best levels. And some of those premium products may carry pricepoints at the level of some national brands in a given category.
“You would not have seen that 10 years ago,” Lyons Wyatt said about the tiered strategy in private label that is more common today. “They have gotten more sophisticated and listened to their customers. They are also promoting items in ways that align with the generations they are targeting.”
