Mondelēz International has launched its first-ever State of Snacking report, a global consumer trends study examining the role snacking plays across the world in meeting consumers’ evolving needs: busy modern lifestyles, the growing desire for community connection and a more holistic sense of wellbeing. The study reveals the rise of global snacking, underscored by regional parallels, demonstrating how snacks are helping lead the future of food by delivering on the spectrum of needs that exists in consumers’ day-to-day lives.
The report comes one year after the company unveiled a long-term strategy and introduced a new purpose to empower people to “snack right.” Over the last year, the company made progress on its mission to offer consumers the right snack, for the right moment, made the right way. This includes developing an ever-deeper knowledge about the demands that motivate people to reach for snacks while continuing to meet people’s more holistic understanding of wellbeing by focusing on sustainably sourced essential ingredients, evolving its product portfolio to a broader range of options and inspiring mindful snacking habits.
“As the snacking market continues to grow globally, we’re living our purpose to empower people to snack right. We are constantly learning about the many different ways consumers around the world are snacking and evolving their relationship with food,” says Dirk Van de Put, Chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International.
“We see that the average adult now eats more snacks than meals on a given day. This is driven by several evolving demands largely associated with how we live today, including a growing need for convenience, yearning to share nostalgic and cultural experiences, expanded wellbeing preferences and the desire for choices that range from wholesome to indulgent,” he explains.
“We embrace the fact that snacking habits around the world are as diverse as the consumers who enjoy them,” continues Van de Put. “However people snack, they should not have to choose between snacking and eating right or to worry about the impact their choices have on the world and their communities.”
The report comes a few months after Innova Market Insights noted a rise in “the fourth meal” culture, particularly among Millennials. Increasingly busy lifestyles mean that the traditional pattern of three meals a day has been giving way to a less formal eating pattern. This, in turn, is spurring NPD, with the market researcher noting particular activity in the healthy snacking space.
The State of Snacking report, developed in partnership with consumer polling specialist, The Harris Poll, complements Mondelēz’s global snacking knowledge estate with new research conducted among thousands of consumers across twelve countries. The report sheds light on snacking as a growing behavior worldwide. Notably, six in ten adults worldwide (59 percent) say they would prefer to eat many small meals throughout the day, as opposed to a few larger ones. Meanwhile, younger consumers are leaning into snacks over meals as that number rises to seven in ten among Millennials (70 percent).
Key findings from the 2019 State of Snacking report include:
Our relationships with food are fundamentally changing. The role food plays in health and wellbeing is increasingly top of mind; people are more commonly considering how smaller bites – snacks – affect their emotional wellbeing, as well as their physical health.
For more than eight in ten people, convenience (87 percent) and quality (85 percent) are among the top factors impacting snack choice.
Eighty percent of consumers are looking for healthy and balanced bites.
Seventy-one percent of adults say snacking helps them control their hunger and manage their calories throughout the day.
However, moments of indulgence continue to have an important place in daily routines.
Eighty percent of adults worldwide acknowledge the need for balance by appreciating the option of both healthy and indulgent snacks, depending on the moment of need.
Seventy-seven percent of consumers agree there is a time and a place for a healthy snack, and a time and a place for an indulgent one.
The majority of people say snacks are just as important to their mental (71 percent) and emotional (70 percent) wellbeing as their physical wellbeing.
Snacking is about so much more than what we eat. Snacking is a key way for people around the world to connect to their culture and share their sense of identity with their communities and families.
Seventy-one percent say snacking is a way to remind themselves of home.
Seven in ten adults make an effort to share their favorite childhood snacks with others (70 percent).
Around the world, more than eight in ten parents use snack time as a small way to connect with their children (82 percent).
About 76 percent of parents use snacks to pass cultural snacking rituals on to their children.
More than three out of four parents (78 percent) say the snacks they choose for their children reflect who they are as a parent.
