零食市場研究

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Snacks are identified as food served in small portions and are eaten in between the main meals. They can come in all shapes and sizes, from packaged snack foods to other processed foods.

Different Types of Snacks

Snacks can be categorized in various ways. People tend to divide them into subsets depending on various criteria. Snacks can be grouped by whether they are sweet or salty and the processing techniques that went into their creation.

• Batter and Dough-Based Snacks
• Cookies
• Cakes and Pastries
• Baked Snacks or Baked Sweets
• Confectionery or Sweet Snacks
• Salty or Savory Snack Foods
• Frozen Snack Food
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Legumes, Grains, Nuts, and edible seeds
• Drinks

Reformulating Without Sensory Testing Is the Costliest R&D Choice in CPG

Snack brands are focusing on three main areas: adding more protein, using clean-label ingredients, and lowering sodium. Innova Market Insights states that 60% of consumers want more protein, with bean-based meat snacks leading new product launches. KIND and Blue Diamond include probiotics and adaptogens in their nut products. Quest Nutrition and Clif Bar are top leaders in functional snack bars.

The clean-label trend has driven up gluten-free cracker sales across all three tracking metrics, according to recent Circana data.

Reformulations alter sensory profiles beyond ingredients, affecting expansion, density, fracture, and seasoning balance. Natural preservatives may cause off-notes; sensory analysis verifies if the crunch-flavor sequence persists. Food scientists predict chemistry, but only trained panels or CLTs assess consumer perception. Central location tests (CLTs) for new snack products should simulate real shopping experiences. Presenting a single prototype alone offers limited insights. An effective protocol includes sequential monadic testing against the current product and a top competitor, using 9-point hedonic scales, JAR diagnostics for saltiness, crunchiness, flavor, and seasoning, and a purchase-intent measure influenced by price. This evaluates preference and how well the new product compares to existing options

Texture Determines Category Shifts. Flavor Receives Recognition.

Consumer research shows taste drives snack purchases, with Innova data confirming that half of salty snack consumers cite taste as their primary reason. However, the actual reasons for switching differ: consumers rarely choose based on flavor. They are influenced by texture factors such as chip shattering, puff dissolving, or cracker density.

Quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) captures snack texture distinctions vital for product development. A trained panel assesses attributes like initial bite force, fracturability, crispness, crunch noise, oral breakdown rate, residual mouthcoat, and greasiness. For example, a potato chip with high fracturability and a loud crunch but too much grease will perform worse than one with slightly less crunch but a drier finish. Hedonic scaling then correlates these attributes with consumer preferences to find the optimal balance.

A recent study from Kasetsart University demonstrated this interaction. In fiber-enriched extruded snacks with okara, tests including mechanical-acoustic, oral tribology, and sensory mapping showed that fiber reduced expansion and altered fracture behavior. Instrumental data alone didn’t predict consumer response; sensory panel results did. This discrepancy between measurements and perception explains why product concept testing often fails when it relies solely on specs rather than human evaluation.

Plant-Based Snacks and the Off-Flavor Penalty

The global plant-based snack market is projected to reach $38.9 billion by 2032, growing at an annual rate of 8.7%. Legume-based snacks—pea, lentil, chickpea, mung bean—are the fastest-growing segment. HIPPEAS, Harvest Snaps (Calbee), and Eat Real have expanded through extrusion and puffing, which improves texture quality compared to conventional chips. But texture is only half the problem.

Assessing the sensory gap in plant-based snacks reveals a common issue: off-flavors. Pulse-based proteins contain volatile compounds from the lipid oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, leading to beany, grassy, or green aromas and aftertastes that are only partially masked by seasoning.

A review in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems found that replacing animal proteins with plant sources affects all sensory aspects, with flavor and aroma deficits mainly driving rejection. Penalty analysis indicates that off-flavors, such as a beany aftertaste exceeding the JAR threshold, can reduce liking scores by 1.5 to 2 points on a 9-point scale.

Brands investing in precision fermentation, enzymatic treatments, and masking technologies need structured sensory validation. Clean-label consumers scrutinize ingredients used to mask off-flavors. A clean-label product needing four masking agents may lose trust. The protocol must test formulation and positioning together.

Private Label Gains Ground When Brands Stop Benchmarking

Private-label food and drinks reached record U.S. sales in 2025, with nearly 40% of consumers buying store brands more often for better quality, selection, and price. Private-label pork rinds, popcorn, and cheese snacks gained market share, according to SNAC International and Circana. Globally, Tesco and Waitrose expanded their private-label ranges, and U.S. retailers are investing in premium store-brand snacks.

Private-label snack taste-parity signals the collapse of a branded product's sensory advantage. When store brands perform just as well as branded products in blind tests, price becomes the key factor in choice. Competitive intelligence should include ongoing sensory benchmarking against private-label competitors on top SKUs, not just shelf audits. Brands that lose shelf space to store brands often stop testing against them.

Functional Ingredients Require Claim-Taste Alignment Research

Functional snack ingredients are evolving, with probiotic, adaptogen, and fiber-fortified snacks leading growth, with the category expected to reach $12.8 billion by 2026. The GLP-1 weight-management trend influences snack formulation, with high-protein, low-sugar products aligned with GLP-1 regimens gaining retail visibility. Brands now include functional claims to set consumer expectations about sensory benefits.

When a functional claim sets expectations that the product doesn't meet, it results in rejection. A customer will not buy a chalky fiber chip or a probiotic bar with an unappealing fermented taste twice. Snacks market research now includes claim-taste tests: showing products with and without claims to different panels and then comparing liking and purchase intent. The difference shows whether the claim helps or harms sales.

The Research Architecture That Protects Velocity

SIS International has conducted sensory evaluation, consumer testing, and competitive intelligence for snack and CPG brands across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific for over forty years. Our market research combines QDA texture profiling, penalty analysis, hedonic scaling, JAR diagnostics, and benchmarking with trained panels and consumer CLTs. We conduct 15 to 20 expert interviews with category buyers, retail operators, and R&D leaders, triangulating data from multiple markets. This intelligence helps determine if a product will maintain momentum, not just achieve a listing.

The snacks market research question is no longer whether a concept tests well, but whether the product's sensory architecture can withstand reformulation and private-label convergence and meet functional claims on the packaging.

SIS International Research specializes in snack-food sensory programs, including CLT design, panel training, reformulation testing, benchmarking, and claim-perception studies. Contact our Food and Beverage team to discuss your snack brand research needs.

Snack food industry leaders or global industry players:

• Calbee
• Danone
• 通用磨坊
• ITC Limited
• Intersnack Group GmbH & Co. KG
• Kellogg's
• Nestlé
• Pepsico Inc
• The Kraft Heinz Company
• Unilever Plc

The leading companies are emphasizing Snacks Market research, geographic expansion, strategic alliances, and mergers and acquisitions as means of meeting the rising customer demand and obtaining an edge in the market. These major companies are securing their foothold in the market by developing new flavors, exploring new areas, and improving their distribution networks.

Benefits of Snacks Market Research

The Snacks Market Research provides insights that are essential in the production, distribution, and promotion of different types of snacks. It can help any business better interact with investors, understand competitors better, and foresee future market trends.

There are numerous ways in which Snacks Market research might impact a company's approach to its business and marketing plan implementations. Below are the data and strategies in the snacks industry that one can benefit from when market research is done efficiently:

• Analysis of Brand Placement
• Analysis of methods for refining and expanding brand identity
• Assessment of Brand Performance
• Assessments of Market Size and Potential
• Evaluation of Ads and Measuring ROI
• Evaluation of Brand or Product Messages
• Examining the Results of the Various Packaging Tests
• Increasing the visibility of the brand or product
• Methods for Evaluating and Improving Concepts
• Research on Consumers' Role in the Creative Process
• Scientific Investigations of Consumer Behavior and Attitudes
• Separating consumers into distinct groups
• Split-Testing for Optimal Marketing
• Theoretical research involving in-depth examinations of categories, snack types, and individual customers
• Understanding the data and strategies in the snacks industry

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