The new concept of healthy eating has become a vane for the development of the snack industry

With the continuous improvement of living standards, people are paying more and more attention to health, not only eating three meals a day, but also eating healthy snacks outside of meals
.
Leisure snacks are foods that people eat when they are resting, and in a broad sense, nut fried goods, biscuits and pastries, candy cheese, puffed foods, marinated meats, tea brewing, etc.
belong to this category
.
New concepts such as "light diet", "low-sugar diet" and "natural additive-free" are affecting the development direction of the snack industry, and the trend of healthy snack food is prominent, and health has become a trend
.
Industry insiders said that some domestic brands need to accurately grasp the market dynamics, through technology research and development and innovation iteration, to provide consumers with high-quality products that meet health needs and eating habits, and strive to seize the opportunity
on the new track of health food.

"Health" has become a general trend

The Chinese snack market is a big cake
.
According to the "2022 China Leisure Snack Industry Research Report", the compound annual growth rate of China's leisure snack market has maintained more than 11% in the past 7 years, and is expected to exceed 1.
5 trillion yuan
in 2022.
In the rapid growth, snack health has become an important trend
in the market.
Based on the sales data of various e-commerce platforms, online sales of leisure snacks in 2022 have steadily increased since mid-February, among which snack foods with "health" as the keyword have increased significantly
compared with the same period last year.

According to the "China Consumer Food Label Awareness and Use Survey Report 2020", 13.
1% of consumers look at the ingredient list every time they buy food, and only 8.
7% never look at the ingredient list
.
"When consumers look at the ingredient list, they are also looking at whether the materials used are original
.
Consumers prefer products
with few or no additives.
Industry insiders said
.

Drinks should be sugar-free, snacks high fiber, staple food easy to digest, every time in the supermarket before buying things will first look at the ingredient list, will choose to buy low-calorie, low-sugar, ingredient list clean snacks, these needs have now become the focus of many consumers to choose food, health has become a direction and trend
of the future development of the entire Chinese food.
"Under the guidance of the four values of weight management, appearance management, health management and nutrition management, Chinese consumers put forward higher requirements
for the ingredient list of food.
" Zhu Danpeng, vice president of Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association, said
.

"The health and naturalization of snacks is the development trend
of the industry.
In recent years, many food and beverage growth has begun to slow down, but some health-related products have grown
rapidly.
Xu Xiongjun, founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting, said
.

The data shows that among the factors that Chinese consumers pay attention to when choosing to buy snack food, the proportion of healthy ingredients has reached 63.
8%.

"Nowadays, consumers' demand for the health of snack food is becoming more and more obvious, people are paying more and more attention to product ingredients, and the content of salt, sugar and fat has become an important yardstick
for people to judge the health of food.
" iMedia consulting analysts believe
.

According to the "2022 Healthy Leisure Snacks White Paper" released by the CBN Business Data Center, the growth rate of snack sales related to the concept of health is much higher than that of ordinary snack foods
.
More than eighty percent of consumers are willing to pay more for high-quality snacks
.
The proportion of online sales of high-priced products above 60 yuan has increased year by year, and leisure snacks are developing
in the direction of quality and health.

"As income levels rise, the overall perception of consumption is changing, and consumers can spend more
to eat healthier.
" Lai Yang, chief expert of the research base of Beijing International Trade Center, said that some foods now make food delicious and healthy through some new processes, new technologies, and new research and development innovations, and consumers are willing to pay
for it.

"Eat well" but also "delicious"

In the snack market, nuts have naturally become a more popular subcategory, and their rich nutritional value has become an important factor
for consumers to choose.
Data shows that nearly sixty percent of consumers have the habit
of consuming nuts frequently.

It is worth noting that when purchasing products, high-quality raw materials have become the highest priority for consumers, and more than eighty percent of consumers are more willing to pay higher prices
for high-quality leisure snacks.

By searching for keywords such as "delicious" and "healthy food" on social platforms, consumers learned about the popular "Academy of Agricultural Sciences Delicacy" series
on the Internet.
"Academy of Agricultural Sciences cuisine" generally refers to healthy foods developed by university agricultural institutions, which focus on reducing additives and ensuring the deliciousness
of food as much as possible.

Taste is a housekeeping skill that snacks cannot be lost
.
According to consumer demand, related companies give a variety of types and flavors
to konjac snacks.
According to the taste preferences of Chinese people, beef-flavored and hotpot-flavored protein bars have been developed, and the product tastes good in order to further capture the stomach
of consumers.

Industry insiders said that in order to stand out in the fierce market competition, domestic healthy snacks should not only pay attention to the nutritional value and health function of the food itself, but also meet the taste buds of consumers as much as possible to achieve both healthy and delicious
.

The snack industry is chasing the big health market

At present, many snack industries have produced meal replacement foods such as jelly, konjac, and multigrain biscuits, and the healthy segment of the snack industry has revived
.

Data show that from 2010 to 2021, the market size of China's leisure food industry continued to grow from 410 billion yuan to 1,156.
2 billion yuan, and it is expected to grow by 7.
2% in 2022, with a market size of 1,239.
1 billion yuan
.

In the face of changes in the consumer market, many snack companies are also adjusting their business strategies
.
Some emerging domestic brands aim at the rapid rise of young groups, while there are also old domestic products that are honest and innovative, striving to create a young and healthy image
of the brand.
The good shop has successively launched the children's snack sub-brand "Xiaoshixian" and the healthy meal replacement snack sub-brand "Good Taste Feiyang"; Qiaqia Food launched a product called "Kwai Zhen", which is labeled as health and light luxury; In the new products launched by the Lexi Natural Taste series of potato chips, the saturated fat content is reduced by 50% compared with the original, indicating that the snack giant is waging war on the "fat" that consumers love and hate; "Daily Black Qiao", which has won two rounds of financing of more than 100 million yuan in a row, focuses on "low sugar", "low-carbon water" and "no additives", and behind it is also the healthy consumption of leisure snacks.
.
.

The health of snacks generally uses the "law of addition and subtraction" to make changes
in terms of process, ingredients, packaging and other aspects.
In terms of technology, there are freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, hot air baked potato chips, etc.
that are launched relative to fried snacks; In terms of ingredients, there are jellies that increase fruit juice and reduce sugar content; On the packaging, there are daily nuts, dried fruits and other "one-day" small package snacks
.

Su Siyu, a national first-level nutritionist, said that in the past, people bought snacks to see whether the packaging was not beautiful and whether the advertising was good, but now consumption tends to be more rational, and healthy snacks meet the new consumer needs
.

"On the consumer side constantly forcing the industrial side to innovate, upgrade and iterate, many enterprises are currying favor with the new generation and satisfying the new generation, all products are consumer-oriented, and the entire industry is entering the node
of high-tech content.
" Zhu Danpeng analyzed
.

With the development of the market, emerging products are maturing
in the competition.
"Relatively speaking, the emergence of low-sugar, low-fat, low-calorie emerging products is an improvement, which can cut into the pain points of consumers, such as the popularity of the concept of Yuanqi Forest and Nongfu Spring Zero Sucrose, which has been verified by the market
.
" Xu Xiongjun said that in the snack industry, who can develop safer and healthier products, who can quickly win
in the market competition.

"The emergence of new technologies and new business operation models has made healthy food better for consumers, the cost is more controllable than in the past, and enterprises are more daring to explore and invest.
"
From the perspective of transportation, the improvement of logistics efficiency and the support of the whole cold chain have also made health products more and more popular.

Lai Yang believes that the greatly shortened logistics time and the improvement of turnover rate have improved business efficiency
.

Overall layout of product development and manufacturing

In fact, in the process of the development of the large health segment of the snack industry, there are many products that use the concept of health to attract consumers' attention, and it is not uncommon for products to "rub" the label when they are advertised, and mislead consumers with advertising, but the actual calories and sugar content may not be much
lower.
Lai Yang said that during the transition period of market development, there may be some products that mislead the concept of consumers, but these things cannot be simply classified as counterfeit fraud
.

An online shopper said that if you want to eat healthy, you must also learn to sift through the information
yourself.

The more rational consumers are, the more they will gradually abandon "pseudo-healthy" snacks
.
Industry insiders said that with the popularization of health concepts and the development of the Internet, consumers will be able to distinguish "pseudo-healthy" products
.

Lai Yang said that some enterprises play "edge balls" to mislead consumers, if the company is suspected of violating the law, the relevant laws protecting consumer rights and interests should be punished
.
If the company or brand is fraudulent or clearly misleading, it actually needs to deter the company through corresponding law enforcement to protect consumer rights
.

"In the future, food safety and health is the general trend, and more and more consumers will take the initiative to look at the ingredient list of food, whether unsafe and unhealthy pigments and additives are added
.
" The change of concept has made the mental cognition of healthy consumption stronger and stronger, and some unhealthy foods are becoming more and more unmarketable
.
Xu Xiongjun thought
.

At present, the standardization construction of the market is steadily progressing, and national standards, industry standards, and group standards of industry associations have been introduced
.
Lai Yang believes that it is difficult to form a one-size-fits-all standard
at present.

The boom in emerging markets has led to more cross-generational products
.
"As the market recognition of new products becomes higher and higher, and even when some new products are launched, they directly transcend generations, do not fight price wars with past products, directly launch healthier products, and seize a more high-end market
.
" Lai Yang said
.

Industry insiders said that in the future, snack companies will continue to carry out independent research and development of key raw materials from the aspects of product lines, research and development
lines, and manufacturing lines.
Continuous innovation in products, keen insight into the growing health needs of consumers, more nutritious health food
.

(Zhu Meiqiao comprehensive arrangement)

China Food News (December 06, 2022, Version 07).

(Responsible editor: Zhu Meiqiao).