We are poised at a significant point in time in the American snack industry. Over the past few years, at various points and to different degrees of intensity, we fortified ourselves with the necessities: sanitizer, toilet paper, and—yes—snacks. We are a nation of snackers, and we continually demonstrate our brand loyalty at the checkout counter—or internet shopping cart.

Despite snack mixes and nuts being known for having many “on-the-go” options, during the pandemic—when consumers have been staying home more—they have still been flocking to the category.

The puffed and extruded category mostly experienced growth from 2021 to 2022. Consumers are also searching for better-for-you flavors, and the category aimed to accommodate.

Thanks to early immigrants from Germany and the Netherlands, hard pretzels today continue as a quintessential American snack. In their most-basic forms, they are a study in beautiful simplicity. Adorned, they can carry a world of flavors. 

Growth in the popcorn category is being driven by new flavor innovations and new packaging sizes and formats. Hot and spicy microwave popcorn and cheddar jalapeño popcorn in family-size bags are just two examples. Expect to see more innovation in the near future.

The tortilla chip category enjoyed a healthy boost in sales during the past year, in spite of the fact that the numbers of bags placed in shopping carts barely budged—thanks to the price increases seen throughout the grocery store and elsewhere.

Consumers are continuing to spend more time at home versus pre-pandemic and this is influencing what they are buying and how and what consumers are eating. 

Crackers share a direct lineage with bread, finding their innovative genesis as a tool of necessity. The notably long shelf life of crackers makes them a resilient go-to food staple throughout the past two centuries.

All that and a bag of chips: You don’t have to be an Urban Dictionary editor to know that the phrase suggests something’s pretty special. And given the continued dynamism in today’s chips space, it’s apparent that snack chips—from retro potato platforms to better-for-you fruit and grain options—are something special, indeed. One could even argue they’re “all that” and a whole lot more.

The frozen food industry will forever owe a debt to Clarence Birdseye. While his freezing innovations date back to the late 1920s, it wasn’t until after World War II that sales of frozen foods really took off.