Our State of the Industry: Bakery issue will be arriving shortly, both in print and online, and it's been interesting to see how snacking habits have shifted since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The past several years have been kind to the tortilla market. Tortillas and tortilla chips are essentials across U.S. retail and foodservice sectors, with steady growth over the past several years.
Snack mixes and nuts are holding steady in the market. IRI, Chicago, reports sales of snack nuts grew 1.4 percent to $4.8 billion, and sales of nutritional snacks/trail mixes grew 2.3 percent to $1.2 billion for the 52 weeks ending December 29, 2019.
Puffed and extruded snacks, a subset of the salty snacks category, continue to rise in popularity as snack producers continually bring ingredient and product format innovations to the table.
While taste will remain a dominant factor for all food products, health, wellness and the nutritional value of the product is growing in importance. Several studies point to the fact that consumers are looking to achieve better overall wellness by selecting foods and ingredients that provide a functional health benefit.
Now in its fifth year, the “Best New Healthy School Snacks” contest, hosted by Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, strives to shine a spotlight on snack and bakery products that exemplify top healthy choices for kids of all ages—whether serving as part of an on-the-go meal solution or between-meals snack.
As reported by Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery in its State of the Industry coverage,the U.S. bakery industry is valued at $51.6 billion in annual sales, and the U.S. snack industry sees sales of over $41.6 billion—and growing every year.