The snacking landscape continues to evolve as consumers search for not only indulgent snacks but also ones that are better for you. Protein, GLP-1s, seed oils, fresh snacking, the return of dairy, and so much more. In this session, we will dive into a summary of our latest report on snacking and hear from panelists (Better Sour and Rotten) on how the snacking category is changing.
In this webinar you’ll learn:
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The snacking industry is expanding across brick-and-mortar and e-commerce, but the most meaningful growth is happening where consumers can satisfy indulgence while still feeling good about what they are buying. In this webinar, SPINS market insights analyst Evonne Chan shared new data on how snack categories are performing, followed by a founder panel featuring Better Sour (Bella Hughes, Co-founder and CRO) and Rotten (Michael Fisher, Founder and CEO). Together, they painted a clear picture of where snacking is headed next: nutrient density, fresh and real choices, and products that win on taste and experience first.
Snack Growth Is Not Even Across Channels
Snacking is growing overall across physical retail and e-commerce, but the mix is shifting. Natural, specialty, and wellness-positioned products are outperforming conventional products in many parts of the snack aisle. Conventional still holds the largest share of total snack dollars, but better-for-you and specialty segments are delivering outsized growth.
A key takeaway from the data: growth is increasingly coming from products that balance convenience and nutrition, not from purely indulgent items or purely functional items.
Where the Strongest Category Momentum Is Showing Up
Looking at the top snack subcategories by dollar sales, Evonne called out an important pattern. Some legacy categories like candy and chocolate are seeing dollar growth while unit sales decline, indicating pricing and inflation effects rather than true demand expansion.
Two subcategories stood out as both dollars and units grew strongly:
These categories align with what many consumers want right now: convenient, nutrient-dense snacks that can play the role of a mini meal.
Snacking Is Becoming a Meal Replacement
One of the biggest structural shifts is behavioral. Over half of Americans are replacing traditional meals with snacking or smaller meals. That changes the bar for what a snack needs to deliver. When snacks become meal substitutes, consumers pay closer attention to protein, satiety, ingredients, and perceived health.
At the same time, snacking remains a difficult moment for healthy decision-making. In SPINS survey work cited during the webinar, 84 percent of Americans said meals are the easiest time to make healthy choices, while only 16 percent said snacks are. The opportunity is in the middle ground: indulgent enough to feel like a treat, but nutritious enough to justify the choice.
GLP-1 Is Accelerating Nutrient-Dense Snacking
GLP 1 usage is rising fast, and its appetite-suppressing side effect is shaping snack preferences. With fewer eating occasions and reduced hunger, consumers want a higher return on investment per bite. The webinar highlighted:
This is contributing to demand for protein-forward, nutrient-dense snack options.
Protein Is Still Climbing, Not Peaking
Despite cultural chatter about peak protein, the data suggest the opposite. Products with higher protein levels are growing, while low-protein snacks are flat or declining in units. The trend spans many snack types, including items not historically associated with protein, such as snack mixes, toaster pastries, and chips.
The webinar also pointed out that some inherently high-protein foods are resurging as snacks, including yogurt, jerky, and cottage cheese. Cottage cheese was framed as a particularly strong comeback story because it shows what happens when function, taste, and price finally align.
Fresh and Real Snacking Is Back
Another major theme was the resurgence of fresh and real snacking. Consumers increasingly look for foods that feel closer to whole foods, but are still convenient. Examples highlighted included:
This aligns with the broader shift toward snacks that feel like real food and can replace a meal.
Ultra-Processed and Seed Oil-Free Are Influencing Choices
Ultra-processed food perception is affecting snack purchasing, even while the federal definition is still being finalized. The webinar noted that units are down overall, but non-ultra-processed snacks are declining less steeply than ultra-processed options, particularly in the natural channel.
Seed oil-free messaging is also gaining traction. Seed oil-free snack products are outperforming others in dollar sales and units, with certain subcategories in the natural channel posting notable gains. One example cited was shelf-stable potato chips, which saw strong growth among seed oil-free positioned offerings.
Taste Still Wins, and Texture Is Becoming a Differentiator
Even with all the focus on nutrition, claims, and ingredients, the webinar made one point repeatedly: taste is king. Price remains top of mind too, but consumers will not repurchase a snack that does not deliver on flavor.
A growing way for brands to compete is through sensory experience. Millennials and Gen Z particularly overindex on crunchy textures, and the market is seeing more sweet, crunchy, and savory crunchy innovation. The broader food culture is reflecting this too, with examples like chili crisp and gummy clusters satisfying texture-driven cravings.
Founder Panel: Why Sour and Texture Are Exploding
Both founders tied the rise in sour flavors and novel textures to cultural participation, especially via social platforms.
Social media is driving shared snack experiences
Rotten highlighted how TikTok and short-form video reward products that create reaction moments. Sour, spicy, and crunchy textures lend themselves to ASMR and reaction content, making them powerful for discovery and trial.
Rotten also described building innovation with channel strategy in mind. Some launches may be too niche for mass retail at first, but can thrive on TikTok Shop and then expand once demand is proven.
Better Sour is bringing a culinary approach to gummies
Better Sour shared that their innovation starts with the foodie consumer and global flavor inspiration. Their view is that many flavor trends begin in restaurants, then move into grocery. They look to dessert menus and cocktail and mocktail programs for signals, then translate those flavors into sour gummy formats with a long-lasting tang and premium ingredient choices.
Better for You Works Best When It Is Not the Headline
A major shared insight from both brands was that a ” better for you positioning can create a taste credibility problem if it leads the story.
Rotten: Make it look like candy first
Rotten intentionally designed packaging and branding so that shoppers do not immediately categorize it as diet candy. The goal is to get customers to try it without assumptions, then let the nutrition benefits reinforce loyalty. Rotten sees reduced sugar as the most durable long-term platform, while acknowledging that protein is strong today but may fluctuate over time.
Better Sour: Let the benefits be a discovery
Better Sour focuses on flavor and experience first, even though the product carries attributes like vegan formulation, colors from plants, lower sugar, high fiber, and even a lower carbon footprint versus gelatin gummy candy. They shared that they are adding a front-of-pack fiber callout later this year, not as a trend chase, but because it is already true to the product and customers are asking for it.
Classic Formats Are Winning, With Modern Twists
Both brands emphasized that familiar formats reduce the need for consumer education.
The broader insight: consumers want new experiences, but they also want to understand what they are buying quickly.
Seasonality: Premium Candy Behaves Differently
Traditional candy spikes around holidays like Halloween, while premium and specialty often overindex on gifting holidays like Valentine’s Day and Christmas. The founders echoed this, noting that premium price points make bulk trick-or-treating harder, but the Halloween season can still drive demand for parties, gifting, and seasonal celebrations.
Both also called out January as a meaningful moment, as consumers reset habits and look for better-for-you aligned indulgences.
Channels: Ecommerce Is a Sales Engine and a Marketing Channel
The panel highlighted different channel philosophies:
A shared point was that candy remains highly impulse-driven, so distribution and visibility matter. Multiple points of discovery inside a store can meaningfully lift velocity.
The Biggest Warning: Do Not Build a Brand Around a Trend
In a rapid-fire question, both founders agreed that some trends are being overestimated and that founders should be cautious about chasing whatever is hot today. Fiber and protein were cited as examples of topics that are loud in the industry conversation, but can fade as differentiators within 12 to 18 months. The recommendation was to build around enduring consumer needs and a product people love, then let functional attributes support the story.
What the Candy Aisle Might Look Like in Five Years
The panel expects more innovation and more category blending. Candy may expand beyond the traditional candy aisle, with products and formats showing up across frozen, refrigerated, and functional adjacencies. The surprise will not just be new claims, but the way candy becomes redefined through new formats, textures, and sensory experiences while still delivering indulgence.
Final Takeaway
The webinar landed on a clear formula for the next era of snacking:
In other words, the brands that will lead are the ones that make snacks feel fun first, then make consumers feel smart for choosing them.
