Nearly 100% of all Americans snack at least once per day, a phenomenon that has both embraced and transformed convenience foods and stimulated impressive category growth. The American Egg Board introduced a new white paper that explores current snack trends and the type of snack profile that offers the greatest appeal to different population segments. “Snacks-pectations: Consumers Want More than Guilty Pleasure,” breaks down snacking occasions and looks at novel product introductions, ingredients and sales channels. 
 
Overall, consumers are demanding healthier choices as they continue to replace meals with snacks and graze throughout the day. Plant-forward formulating meshes with ongoing demand for protein content, resulting in ingredient combinations that complement each other to optimize the vitamin and mineral content of the finished product. Nutrient-dense ingredients such as REAL eggs not only supply a highly desired protein source, but also supply practical functional benefits to snack products. Eggs provide more than 20 functional benefits to food formulations that work symbiotically with a host of other ingredients. Additionally, egg ingredients offer a proven track record within the industrial manufacturing environment, performing under diverse processing conditions.  
 
The snacking white paper is the centerpiece of the American Egg Board’s latest Eggsaminer, a product development resource for food manufacturers. The Eggsaminer regularly takes an in-depth look at product trends and ways that developers meet consumer expectations in their new product introductions. This issue takes a deep dive into the snacking category. In part, egg use in snack products is examined, with a look at new products containing eggs. Other topics covered include egg research, nutrition and functionality.
 
“Snacking today doesn’t exclude indulgent pleasures that consumers have long enjoyed,” said Elisa Maloberti, AEB director of egg product marketing. “However, as we see snack occasions increase and replace regular meals, consumers look for healthier snacks that are nutritionally sound, filling and of course, great tasting.”
 
“In addition, snacks offer manufacturers a platform to experiment with unexpected flavors and formats. Consumers enjoy taking food adventures and are more willing to try a new flavor or style in a snack than they would with a regular meal. Formulators can take advantage of the multiple functional properties egg ingredients supply to create new snack formats. Eggs can supply great taste or remain a subtle note in the background to allow other savory or sweet flavors to shine.”
 
Find out how REAL egg products can improve the nutritional profile of new snack introductions by downloading the latest white paper from the American Egg Board.