Mondelēz International has released its third annual ‘State of Snacking’ report, a global trends study examining how consumers make snacking decisions.

It reveals that snacking continues to outpace meals for the third consecutive year at a statistically significant pace of 64 per cent, up 5 percentage points since 2019.

The findings demonstrate the expanded meaning of snacking in people’s lives.

It says nearly 80 per cent of consumers globally say their definition of a snack has evolved over the last three years, and 85 per cent of consumers eat at least one snack a day for indulgence.

A vast majority of consumers worldwide (85 per cent) want to buy snacks from companies that off-set their environmental footprint.

More than half say social media has inspired them to try a new snack in the past year.

Consumers are experimenting with new channels to buy snacks, with more than half reporting shopping for snacks using at least three non-traditional or emerging channels.

A majority expect to be able to buy the snacks they want whenever they want and use any channel they want, especially in Asia and Latin America.

“Our … report found that the definition of snacking is evolving among the global consumer, which is reshaping the meaning of snacking in people’s lives,” Dirk Van de Put, chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International, said.

The report, done in partnership with consumer polling specialist The Harris Poll and supported with trends intelligence from Nextatlas, complements Mondelēz International’s robust snacking insights knowledge estate, with new polling done of thousands of consumers in 12 countries. — VNS