The proliferating health & wellness trend's impact on fruit snacks

The ongoing trend of health consciousness has brought about a revolution in the F&B domain.

Health food is no longer a niche group and more general and health food movements are starting to integrate. These conditions are terraforming the food industry landscape to provide a lucrative growth ground to the fruit snacks market.

Driving the demand

• Increasing awareness​

A sharper awareness about health is one of the major determinants propelling healthy food choices and fruit snack sales. Attributing to the growing penetration of the internet and the rising adoption of healthy lifestyles, consumers are increasingly becoming more mindful of diet and nutrition related facts and information.

This development is creating a favourable frame of mind among customers regarding healthy food choices. Driven by the ready availability of a number of processed food products across supermarket shelves, the fruit snacks industry is forecast to build considerable traction in the forthcoming years.​​

• Demand for transparency​

Supported by increasing awareness, the biggest trend that is changing the F&B sector is the demand for transparency.

Customers actively want to know and understand the ingredients used in the foods they eat. Today, people are far more likely to flip the packet to check ingredients and nutritional facts before putting the product in the shopping cart.

This purchasing habit is further driving food companies to come out with products with ingredient lists that are shorter, more organic, natural and easy to understand. With this change, attracting and retaining customer attention is anticipated to become far easier for the global fruit snacks sector over the forthcoming years.

• Government initiatives​

When it comes to fostering sales of fruit snacks on a global level, consumer awareness and preferences are further joined by an increasing number of government initiatives.

Spurred by the growing prominence of obesity-related epidemics – which fuel diseases like hypertension and diabetes – several government organisations have started promoting healthy living practices, encouraging citizens to think more carefully about the dietary choices.

A recent survey conducted in the UK under Public Health England’s (PHE) Change4Life campaign discovered that eight out of 10 parents (approximately 84%) are unsure of what constitutes as healthy breakfast foods for their children.​​

With initiatives like the Change4Life campaign urging and teaching parents to be more smart about their children’s food intake, the industry is likely to experience a global shift in terms of snacking choices, creating a level playing field for the fruit snacks sector.

Impact of China’s emerging healthy living trend​

The Chinese government has recently devised new nutritional policies and health initiatives, focused on resolving the growing chronic disease epidemic.

According to Fi Global, a global F&B event platform, Chinese consumers – particularly the young demographic – are paying more attention to their health.

This has changed their food and snack preferences to include products with low oil, salt and sugar content, significantly uplifting the importance of the country’s food sector. This change can be especially seen in its food nutrition and health food segment.

In fact, in 2017, China registered a 27% and 8% increase in normal temperature yogurt and fresh yogurt sales, respectively, denoting the rise in popularity of dairy products in the country, which is likely to offer immense market potential to the region's fruit snacks sector.

How can online retailers bring in new revenues to the fruit snacks market?​

Today's consumers are actively looking for new ways to make their lives more convenient. This is the sole reason why delivery services like Uber Eats are gaining popularity. Additionally, the number of internet users is also projected to increase by a large margin.

Online retailers have seen this rise in internet usage and demand for convenience as an opportunity and retailers like Amazon and Walmart are capitalising on it to expand their services.

Ecommerce giants have included active grocery catalogues on their websites, which again, provides fruit snack products more exposure as they do not have to compete for a physical space on a grocery shelves.

Also, as retailers push hard to make their new services a success, fruit snacks are predicted to be the most popular products featured on the list.

So, considering the oncoming support from consumers, government and online retailers, sales of fruit snacks are forecast to rise in the coming years. According to Global Market Insights, the sector is expected to cross the $8bn mark by 2025.