Snacks
The global savoury snacks market size was valued at USD 250.5 billion in 2021
In Europe, the value of the European savoury market amounted to 21 B USD .
The snacks market is showing growth; consumers are increasingly conscious and looking for healthy and sustainable diets and they are better understanding the links between diet, health and the environment and consuming and buying snacks differently. Producers are adapting to these trends by innovation in ingredients, formulations, packaging and retail alternatives for this category.
Most common source of ingredients of the category are cereals (corn, wheat, oat, barley, rice, potato, tapioca), also starch. Other sources of ingredients are whole grains &/or mixture of grains, ancient grains (amaranth, quinoa etc.), roots & tubers. With the increased demand of healthy alternatives, food industry by-products, such as fruit and vegetable pomace and bagasse, oilseed cakes, brewers spent grains, cereal brans and whey, could be used as excellent sources of nutritionally enhancing and eco-friendly compounds.
Types of snacks products
The different types of snacks :
- Extruded snacks (Simply extruded snacks, 2nd generation snacks – expanded snacks, Pellets (3rd generation snacks), fried or baked, filled snacks)
- Fried (potato chips)
- Baked
- Nuts & dried fruits (Cereal and granola bars, nuts and seeds snacks, dried fruit, trail mix snacks, energy fruit bars)
- Popcorn
- Other snacks (meat snacks, fruit snacks etc.)
One of the main differences between these products is the processing technology.
Regulatory Framework
Safety and Quality of the snacks sector
The challenges in terms of food safety in the snacks products sector mainly concern chemical risks with processing contaminants such as acrylamide, allergens and microbiological and physical risks related with some raw materials.
Process temperatures together with a proper food safety management system according to the risk of contamination of each kind of snacks could help to keep controlled the possible hazards
