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Consumers reach for salty snacks to de-stress and boost their mood. This creates an opportunity for functional salty snacks with mood-boosting ingredients, especially for Millennials.
Salty snacks are a favorite comfort food consumers use to relax, de-stress, and improve their mood. Since salty snacks are associated with stress relief occasions, they make an ideal format for adding mood-boosting ingredients. Brands can add ingredients known to positively impact mood to enhance the mental wellness aspect of their salty snacks.
While many consumer segments could benefit from functional salty snacks that support mental wellness, Millennials stand out as high-potential target consumers for two key reasons. First, Millennials love salty snacks. In the US, Millennials snack at least once a day, and they eat more salty snacks than other demographics.1
Second, Millennials are a generation experiencing high levels of stress. They are stressed about their jobs, a lack of work-life balance, and the rising cost of living, on top of the steady stream of negativity in the media. They already use snacks to de-stress, but a snack with added wellness benefits becomes a healthier approach to self-care.
Besides snacks for de-stressing, snacks that provide an energy boost offer another opportunity to meet Millennials’ needs. Feeling fatigued is a common complaint of Millennials, with 65% of Millennials who snack saying they snack to boost their energy levels.2 Snacks with functional ingredients for crash-free energy can help them power through the day.
Better-for-you snacks like those with fortifications are a growing trend that appeals to a broad range of consumers. Among Millennials, those who have maintained or reduced the amount they snack say they would buy more salty snacks if healthier options were available.3 This represents a considerable opportunity for brands offering better-for-you salty snacks with added energy-boosting or stress-relieving ingredients, for example.
However, success in better-for-you snacks requires more than providing relevant health and wellness benefits. Taste still matters—especially to Millennials. Brands should ensure they don’t compromise on flavor or texture when adding functional ingredients. Continuous innovation is also important to maintain consumer engagement and keep better-for-you salty snacks as exciting as the other snacks in the aisle.
Adding functional wellness ingredients to a snack is an easy upgrade. Our extruded Crunchie™ Protein Semi-Finished Pieces are the perfect solution to provide your consumers with a source of high-quality milk, whey or pea-based protein. Our CuisineFlax™ Extender and Binder are clean-label gum replacers that enhance the softness and shelf life of your baked goods and snacks while enabling you to make high and good source claims for fiber and omega-3 ALA. Let us help you develop a better-for-you snack your consumers are sure to love.
Contact Glanbia Nutritionals to learn more.
