Snacking is firmly embedded in modern eating habits. In the US, snacks account for around 20–22% of daily dietary energy, while estimates vary across other countries.
With consumers increasingly looking for foods that combine convenience, taste and health, the question may no longer simply be whether we snack — but how we can design better snacking experiences.
A new Perspective just published in Frontiers in Nutrition explores this question through the concept of responsible snacking. Rather than placing responsibility entirely on consumers, Canzoneri and colleagues consider how both consumer behaviour and the food environment can influence what and how much we eat.
Their approach brings together several dimensions of snacking — including energy density, portion size, sensory properties and the context in which snacks are consumed.
For the food industry, this raises an interesting possibility: could healthier snacking be supported not by a single reformulation strategy, but by thinking more broadly about the overall snacking experience?
From restricting snacks to designing them differently
Snacks can form part of a healthy dietary pattern, but many commonly consumed snack foods are energy dense. This makes both the nutritional composition of the snack and the amount consumed important considerations.
One strategy discussed by the authors is reducing the energy density of the overall snacking occasion. Research cited in the paper suggests that combining energy-dense snacks with lower-energy-density foods can help reduce the overall energy density of an eating occasion and potentially reduce energy intake.
For product developers, this introduces a broader way of thinking about reformulation.
Rather than focusing exclusively on reducing individual nutrients, manufacturers could consider the relationship between nutritional composition, energy density, portion size and the way a product is consumed.
The paper also considers nutrient density, including the potential role of fibre, protein and micronutrients, highlighting the need to balance nutritional value with the overall energy content of a serving.
Portion size: when packaging becomes part of the nutrition conversation
Portion size is another important part of the equation.
Research reviewed by the authors indicates that larger portions of energy-dense foods can result in greater energy intake without necessarily producing a proportional increase in satiety.
This makes portioning an interesting area for innovation — and brings packaging into the nutrition conversation.
Packaging can influence how consumers perceive and navigate portions, potentially helping create clearer boundaries around an eating occasion.
But simply making products smaller is unlikely to be enough.
For manufacturers, the challenge is to consider portion size alongside consumer expectations, satisfaction and perceived value. A smaller snack still needs to feel like a complete and enjoyable eating experience.
Could sensory design become part of healthier product innovation?
One of the more interesting areas explored in the paper is the role of sensory design.
Taste remains fundamental to food choice, meaning nutritional improvements that substantially compromise enjoyment are unlikely to succeed. But the physical characteristics of foods — including texture, structure and viscosity — can also influence how quickly they are eaten and the overall eating experience.
This introduces an interesting dimension to reformulation.
Product development has traditionally concentrated heavily on what is in a food. Sensory science encourages manufacturers to think more broadly about how a food is experienced and consumed.
For the snack category, this could create new opportunities to bring nutrition and sensory science closer together — while keeping consumer enjoyment firmly at the centre.
The snacking occasion matters too
Responsible snacking is not only about the product itself.
The paper also considers the context in which snacks are consumed, including attention, distraction and more structured eating occasions.
This adds an important behavioural dimension. Packaging, portioning and communication do not operate in isolation; they form part of a wider eating experience.
For manufacturers, understanding that context could become increasingly relevant when designing products that aim to support healthier snacking behaviours.
A shared responsibility for responsible snacking
One of the strongest messages from the Perspective is that healthier snacking should not be framed solely as a question of individual choice.
Consumers make decisions within a food environment shaped by product formulation, availability, portioning, packaging, pricing and communication. The paper therefore places responsibility not only on consumers, but also on the wider food system.
For manufacturers, this creates an opportunity to think beyond traditional reformulation and consider how different aspects of product design can work together to support more responsible consumption — without losing sight of the reasons consumers choose snacks in the first place.
That shifts the conversation from:
“How do we get consumers to snack less?”
towards a potentially more constructive question:
“How can we help consumers snack better?”
The Nutricomms Perspective
Responsible snacking presents an interesting innovation opportunity because it moves the conversation beyond traditional reformulation.
Rather than looking at nutrition, portion size, sensory experience, packaging and consumer behaviour as separate issues, the emerging opportunity is to understand how they interact to shape the overall snacking experience.
But healthier snacking still has to work in the real world. Taste, enjoyment, convenience, affordability and accessibility remain fundamental to consumer choice.
For the food industry, the challenge is therefore not simply to create another product with a “healthier” nutritional profile. It is to translate nutrition and behavioural science into products that make better choices easy, appealing and relevant to everyday life.
At Nutricomms, we believe this is where the next phase of snack innovation becomes particularly interesting: bringing together science, consumer insight and product strategy to identify where meaningful opportunities exist — without assuming that one solution will work across every product, category or consumer.
The future of healthier snacking may not be about asking consumers to snack less. It may be about rethinking what a better snacking experience looks like.
Reference
- Canzoneri F, Drewnowski A, Rolls BJ, Tramontin F and Cavalli E (2026). Managing snacking behaviors through energy density, portion control, sensory properties, and packaging. Frontiers in Nutrition, 13:1919469. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2026.1919469. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1919469/abstract#h1
