It’s official. We are a nation of snackers. Snacks take the place of meals. Snacking takes place anytime and anywhere. And most Americans say any food can be a snack. Meals have generally been defined by time, cultural traditions, the appropriate setting, and representation from the various food groups. Now, meals are often created from a collection of snacks. We snack to fuel up. We snack to satisfy a craving. We snack because we are bored or stressed. And of course, we snack because we are busy multi-tasking and often on the move to something more interesting.
While you’d think there are myriad options literally at hand, a 2017 Mintel study showed that 33% of US adults agree there are not enough conveniently packaged snacks. One might wonder what does that mean? To understand what constitutes “conveniently packaged” it begs an exploration into people’s snacking behaviors and what constitutes an optimal snacking experience.