• ⏱️ Gopuff Unveils 20-Minute Delivery Service
• 🏆 Biddii Baby Foods Wins Steltenpohl Visionary Award
• 🍽️ Home Chef Launches Food Rescue Program
• 👻 GHOST Steps Into Food
• 🔖 What We Are Reading

Snacks account for half of all eating occasions – 71% of consumers have eaten a snack in the past 24 hours – but how can packaged food brands capitalize on evolving consumer habits? Today, we are unpacking the latest snacking report by The Hartman Group. 

🌶️ Snacking is more common among younger consumers, who are driving trends towards bold, unconventional and global flavors, as well as novel textures and forms.

🥪 Consumers eat similar foods across snacking and meal occasions, and Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to replace meals with snacks at least weekly. Overall, only 37% percent of consumers eat three meals a day, down from 43% in 2020. 

👅 Taste, price and convenience remain the most important considerations in snack selection. Spicy flavors are a key trend in snacking, as well as the rising influence of Asian and Latin American cultures and cuisines.

The Hartman Group identified four main motivations for snacking: nourishment, optimization, pleasure and distraction.

🍎 Sixty-two percent of snacking occasions involve nourishment. That refers to products that are high in essential nutrients, minimally processed and offer health benefits; however, per the report, consumers struggle to find enough minimally processed or organic snacks.

🧠 Thirty-six percent of snacking occasions are for optimization and lead consumers to snacks that provide an energy boost or enhanced mental and physical performance. Overall, 17% of consumers (and 23% of Gen Z and Millennials) have purchased snacks with functional benefits in the past three months.

🍫 Forty-nine percent of snacking occasions are motivated by pleasure, which may include distinctive flavors or textures, emotional reward and experiential discovery. The most prominent times for pleasure snacking are late night and after dinner.

🍿 Thirty-one percent of snacking occasions are driven by distraction, meaning snacks that are consumed for entertainment, comfort or stress relief. A quarter of consumers say they frequently snack without a reason. 

🔑 Key takeaways: The Hartman Group recommends innovating around sensory pleasures like texture, smell and sound, in addition to taste; prioritizing convenience in preparation and packaging; highlighting protein; and promoting connection during snacking occasions.

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Rapid delivery company Gopuff has launched a 20-minute delivery service exclusively available to members of its FAM program. Aptly named FAM20, the new perk costs $1.49 per order while a FAM membership rings in at $7.99/month or $79.99/year. 

⏪ During pilot testing, FAM20 orders were packed in Gopuff’s micro-fulfillment centers in 90 seconds on average and customers received their orders in approximately 17 minutes. Some orders were completed in under 10 minutes, according to the announcement. 

👀 FAM20 marks the latest in a series of investments the company has made to enhance its FAM membership; according to Gopuff, its FAM-exclusive low prices – introduced late last year – have saved customers an average of $30/month. 

During the wild rush of Natural Products Expo West last month, New Hope Network announced Biddii Baby Foods, an indigenous baby food brand operating in the Navajo Nation, as the winner of the 2024 Greg Steltenpohl Pragmatic Visionary Award.

✊🏽 The Steltenpohl Award is named for Odwalla and Califia Farms founder Greg Steltenpohl, who died in 2021, and honors brands and entrepreneurs focused on making a positive social and environmental impact with plant-based products. Biddii is the second winner of the award, following last year’s inaugural recipient SIMPLi.

👶🏽 Founded in 2021, Biddii’s baby food line features Indigenous recipes made with dried steamed corn. The company also works to support Indigenous farmers.

🌽 The $75,000 grand prize was awarded to husband-and-wife co-founders Zachariah and Mary Ben during the trade show in Anaheim, California, last month. Superfood rice brand Jasberry received a runner-up prize of $25,000.

Meal kit business Home Chef announced a new plan yesterday aimed at redirecting surplus food and reducing waste in its manufacturing and production processes. 

🤝 The program pairs all four Home Chef facilities – located in Baltimore, Atlanta, San Bernardino and Chicago – with local non-profit organizations that support communities facing hunger and food insecurity to direct items that would otherwise go to waste. 

🤔 According to an internal Home Chef study, 70% of customers have lowered their household food waste since ordering the company’s meals. On average, households waste 38% less food when they prepare dinner using a meal kit, according to a 2022 Journal of Cleaner Production report. 

📉 Home Chef has also worked to minimize waste in its supply chain by forecasting ingredient needs to minimize surplus and collaborating with its culinary team to consolidate ingredients across meals. Food that cannot be donated is composted.

BevNET Rising Star award-winner GHOST just recently launched a new beverage innovation, but its next move represents a step into an entirely different side of CPG: Meet GHOST Protein Cereal, a collaboration with category giant General Mills.

🥜 Details have been scarce thus far, but the product was teased in a LinkedIn post from the brand’s official account on Wednesday as launching in a single flavor (Peanut Butter) with 18 grams of protein per one-cup serving. 

🗣️ Per the post: “It’s no secret...we just love cereal. Since day one, we’ve been inspired by the iconic cereal aisle color palette, nostalgic cereal flavor profiles and genuine fun that cereal, as a category, exudes. So...why not partner with the best in the business (General Mills = GOAT) and put our own spin on one of our favorite things on this planet?”

📈 GHOST is set to join a competitive protein cereal set that includes brands like Magic Spoon, Premier Protein and Kellogg’s Eat Your Mouth Off. 

The internet has been abuzz with a wide array of food and beverage discussion this week from the dominance of functional beverages to the shady private labeling practices of Trader Joe’s. Here’s a look at what we’ve been digging into:

From The Atlantic, “I Just Want A Normal Drink”: This one reads almost like a plea. Author Yasmin Tayag seems to believe functional drink makers have innovated too far –  “who asked for seltzer with ashwagandha?” – and charts the evolution of the beverage+ set alongside protein bars and snacks.

From The Washington Post, “As obesity rises, Big Food and dieticians push ‘anti-diet’ advice”: A recent investigation by the WaPo and The Examination revealed that General Mills’ ‘anti-diet’ crusade has funded at least seven scientific studies since 2019 designed around promoting cereal as healthy and spent more than $2 million in 2022 and 2023 lobbying the federal government.