Snacking now represents 50 percent of all food and beverage occasions, according to a report on consumer eating behavior from the Hartman Group. The Bellevue, Wash.-based researcher calls this the “snackification” of mealtimes and backs up the trend here:
90% of consumers snack multiple times throughout the day
7% of these consumers skip meals completely in favor of all-day snacking
80% of all snacking is purposeful—it fulfills a physical, emotional, social or cultural desire
20% of all snacking is aimless, driven by the availability of food
61% of consumers are opting for healthier snacks, with 64 percent choosing fruits and vegetables
Data from The NPD Group’s Snacking in America study reveals generational differences among snackers:
- While millennials tend to reach for grab-and-go snacks when they are hungry, boomers snack because they don’t want to prepare a big meal, and eat alone more often than other age groups
- Kids between the ages of 2 and 17 beat out all other groups—they eat an average 1,500 snacks per year, higher than boomers’ average of 1,200 and millennials’ 1,000 snack occasions