Food Marketing & Technology Magazine organised a Virtual Panel Discussion on “Navigating the Potential of Healthy Snacks Market in 2024” with Panellists Shalin Khanna, CMO of ProV Foods and Sameer Bhanushali, CEO of Bazana Foods, moderated by Priyasha Mohanty, Deputy Editor of Food Marketing & Technology Magazine.
Healthy Snacks Market has evolved over the years but it still has a long way to go. With more representation and visibility in the Food and Beverage Industry, this sector can be transformative for the future of the Industry, securing a healthy base as a framework for snacking.
This is a relatively untapped space with vast potential and with the right tools, resources, and consumer awareness, healthy snacking industry will boom at an unprecedented rate. The discussion covered a plethora of areas within the sector.
Emergence of the Healthy Snacks Trend
To understand the trend, it is essential to trace where the need came from. Back in the 90s when Globalism and Capitalism came at the forefront, desire for quick convenient meals designed for convenient lifestyles became a trend. This gave rise to the fast food culture. This era was predominantly marked by a taste in speed over nutrition. It has sugars, preservatives, and more. Beyond that, the labelling was far less detailed back then. This trend gave rise to snacking. In yesteryear, snacking was associated with junk food, fried food, and more. By the 21st century, a Global Epidemic of lifestyle diseases saw a rise and the general population became aware of the harms associated with large scale consumption. This saw a gradual shift towards healthy snacks. In the early 21st century, this market came into the arena but the reach was limited, not accessible, and not affordable. Moreover, the consumer education was lacking. This changed massively in the last decade, specially in the last 5 years with veganism, fitness lifestyles gaining more traction among the masses. This is the positive side of capitalism and consumerism, wherein consumers want to invest in their health. The biggest splurge of this trend has been witnessed during the covid times and overall, a need for a healthier lifestyle is what has given rise to this market.
Criteria of Healthy Snacks
To understand the metrics of what constitutes as healthy snacks, anything that is not fried, does not contain processed oil, is high on protein and nutritional ingredients like millets, and is organic can easily fall under the healthy snacks paradigm. The biggest problem with snacks is that they are processed. When they fall out of that side, they can be considered as healthy. Less chemicals and preservatives are key in the making of healthy snacks. Less to no sugar should be used.Though, sugar is bad, to maintain the taste, right amount sugar can be essential.
Gaps in the Industry
One of the key gaps in the industry boil down to the focus on taste. The focus should not only be on the nutritional value but taste as well for brand loyalty and stickiness to a product. The idea is to create a nutritionally viable product with a balance of taste. Brands should have an agenda in place wherein they educate the consumers on the nutritional benefits of their products while also offering products across a wide spectrum to move from their preferential palette to one that is adapting to natural products. The shift has to be subtle, ensuring consumer satisfaction.
Using Global or Indian local flavours that are popular work. Another aspect is to avoid misleading advertisements. Being transparent with your customers is key. One of the major gaps is down to affordability of healthy snacks. Junk food is more affordable as compared to healthy snacks, which hold the general perception of being viewed as expensive for being a niche market. This essentially needs to be curbed as the Indian market is on the go, unique, and it is a GT dominant market which is one the gaps that needs to be bridged.
Indian and International Snacks Market
Trends are quicker to catch up on now owing to social media. In the Indian market, snacks such as namkeen, wafers, cookies, gujiya are chosen by the masses. The hot snacks include vada pav, chole kulche etc. which are relatively unhealthy. In the Global arena; Europe, US, Far East, and Middle East, energy bars, baked snacks, plant based, organic options are available. India is beginning to pick up on these trends and Indians are developing their palettes. Soy milk, almond milk, and more have been adapted from the west. Globally, more innovations are happening with gourmet snacks becoming more of a norm and Indian is falling into that trend as well.
Nuts as Healthy Snacks and Snacks Processing
In the broader sense, nuts fall under the berries and dry fruits market. Nuts are even used as raw ingredients and are a plant based go-to. They blend easily into processing any snack. Nuts and berries are considered as hero ingredients of any snack. Nuts are already developed in the Indian palette as they have been consumed since ages and used as ingredients in our cooking. In their natural state, they are considerably acceptable. To understand minimal processing, an underrated section would be Mildly flavored trail mixes are ideal as they are nutritional, have flavours that are excepted, and avoid high end processing. Minimal processing, roasting, baking with 10% of flavoring are more viable options as opposed to using high end vegetable oil, frying etc. Another important aspect would be to keep minimal ingredients. Keeping ingredients list to natural and near natural and limiting it to stabilisers for shelf life stability in terms of its reach in Tier-2 , Tier-3 cities, you can maintain the nutritional profile while processing it. Flavour and texture is important. In India, every state has a different flavour preference. Localise your selection for acceptance. Lastly, affordability is a key point. Ensure that your product is affordable.
Protein Bars as Healthy Snacks
There are lots of myths associated with protein bars. Often times high nutritional protein bars are not picked off the shelf- the ones with no preservatives and no sugar. This is due to a lack of taste.A minuscule amount of people consume it solely for the nutritional value. Taste plays an important role. There are a variety of audience for this- some cater to taste with nutrition, some only to nutritional aspect. Sugar in the right amount can be essential but that depends on the audience that you are catering to. Find your demographic and audience, and carve out your niche accordingly as one size does not fit all.
Conclusion
Unhealthy snacks have been in the shelf for the longest time and while we are transitioning into a healthier market, it is not a quick transition. As we stretch out on the affordability and accessibility of healthy snacks, the market will become much more stable and grow in years to come.
This session highlighted some of the key factors that can be worked upon to propel the market in a forward direction and be at par with global healthy snacks standards. Food Marketing & Technology Magazine has been hosting Webinars/ Virtual Panel Discussions with the hopes of making knowledge accessible to everyone. If you wish to participate in the same,
