Snack Buyer July 2024

28 @specialityfood ALT CRISPS There was a time when three options existed for crisps: potato, reformed potato, and vegetable. Fast forward to today, and the category overflows with innovation, from new takes on vegetable snacks to bang-on-trend flavours that hit the mark with younger snack seekers. It’s not just the younger demographic that’s on the hunt for alternatives, though. There’s a whole swathe of shoppers who are thinking more keenly about their health and the impact their diet has on, particularly, their gut. Fibre-packed (often lower fat) vegetable crisps are definitely on their radar. It’s been clear to see, in the last 12 months, the impact that a new, younger demographic of shoppers has had on food and drink retail. Food content on social media is thought to be the lead proponent for change, with the hashtag TikTokFood attracting an incredible 43 billion views in 2021 – a figure that has been climbing steadily since. Through platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, Millennials, Gen-Z and Gen Alpha are having their eyes opened to more food cultures and cuisines than ever before, and are hunting out instant gratification in the form of snacks THE POWER OF ‘NEW’ DARE VEGGIE CRISPS SEA SALT Popped, not fried, these crisps are packed with the goodness of real vegetables, including yellow and green peas, tomatoes and carrots. darefoods.com REAL NATURALS SHIITAKE MUSHROOM CHIPS – SEA SALT These crunchy chips are made purely from real shiitake mushrooms. As well as being gluten-free and vegan, they contain only 100 calories per bag. diversefinefood.co.uk NUDIE CAULIFLOWER CRISPS – KATSU CURRY Fresh cauliflower from Scottish farms is harvested and transformed into these light, award-winning snacks, seasoned with one of the rising stars in flavour right now. nudiesnacks.co.uk WHAT IS SWICY? ‘Swicy’ is THE flavour profile of 2024. Brands across the speciality food and drink sector are leveraging the popularity of hot honey (which attracted an enormous amount of attention last year) and bringing that irresistible combination of sweet, savoury and spicy together across multiple categories – but especially snacks. Chef Nina Matsunaga put the trend down to British consumers’ appetite for exploring hotter tastes. She admits “getting used to spice is still quite hard”, but says this new trend counters that, bringing a level of balance and making chilli-infused products more “broadly palatable”. Flavours delivering the most gratification for swicy fans include Thai sweet chilli, any seasonings bringing meat and chilli together, Korean gochujang and Korean barbecue.