Health concerns, increasingly profiled in the media, have given the snack category a formidable obstacle. Obesity in this country has skyrocketed, so much so that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta) has increased efforts to raise awareness through its Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. Beginning in October 2000, CDC funded a number of state health departments to help them develop and carry out targeted nutrition and physical activity interventions, in an effort to address the problem of obesity. According to 2003 industry data, “there is twice the number of overweight children as there was 30 years ago.”
Many snack companies have begun efforts to tackle this problem, including the two market leaders in the healthy snacks market, Pepsi/Frito-Lay/Quaker Oats (Purchase, N.Y.) and Kraft Foods/Nabisco (Glenview, Ill.). Kraft Foods is perhaps the most well-known company to address the issue of obesity, with public promises to reduce portion size, reformulate products and, where possible, to reduce fat and sugar. A company press release states, “We're doing this because we believe the rise in obesity is a public health challenge of global proportions. It's an important issue, and we have an important role to play.”