Most Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 eat a ‘wholesome’ snack in place of a standard meal at least once a week, according to research commissioned by Welch’s Global Group and carried out by Surveygoo in January.
More than 9 out of 10 millennials surveyed in the US said that they swapped a traditional breakfast for a healthy snack at least one a week. Half replace a meal with a snack about four times a week and a quarter said they did so daily.
More than half said that they were either too busy to sit down to a meal or can’t be bothered cooking at all. About half snack at work and a third snack in the car.
The survey reported that millennials tend to go for whole grains (45%), real fruit (42%) or nuts (39%).
There are no corresponding figures published in Australia. But the most recent AACS SOI Survey cites two nutritional bars, one popcorn and one nut product in the Top Ten snackfood categories by value. In the 2015 calendar year, nut sales grew by 22.9%, nutritional bars by 9.5% and, off an admittedly low base, popcorn grew by 159%.
The report also cites IRI research which found that two thirds of Australian use nutritional information of the pack in their decision to purchase and a similar proportion claim to actively manage the type of foods they consume.