A boost in at-home snacking and demand for indulgent, familiar fare during the COVID-19 pandemic drove an impressive 9.9% dollar sales growth in salty snack in 2020, to reach nearly $22 billion. While value is a strong play during economic uncertainty, continued innovation in ingredients, flavors and functionality, especially in boosting better for you (BFY) cred will be key to engaging consumers and expanding occasions as the pandemic eases. Replete with nearly universal household penetration and well-established brands, the category faces challenges from competing snack options, as well as from concerns about sodium content, calories and artificial ingredients.

This Report builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s Salty Snacks – US, April 2020 and previous iterations of salty snack Reports.

This Report covers the following segments:

• Meat snacks (jerky and other dried meat snacks)

• Cheese snacks (excluding cheese crackers such as Cheez-It)

• Popcorn

• Pretzels

• Corn snacks (excluding tortilla chips)

• Other salty snacks (pork rinds, chocolate covered salty snacks, snack mixes (eg Chex Mix), veggie chips, puffed snacks, multi-grain chips (eg Sun Chips), toasted corn nuts, etc. Included in this category are multi-packs of individual salty snack packages, such as Frito-Lays "Classic Mix," which includes Lay's Potato Chips, Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos and Sun Chips.

Note: This Report does not cover potato and tortilla chips, except, as noted above, as part of multi-packs containing a variety of different products. For information on chips, please see Mintel’s Potato and Tortilla Chips – US, March 2020.

Mintel’s economic assumptions are based on CBO estimates released on February 1, 2021. The CBO’s previous forecast for US GDP to fall by 5.8% in 2020 was revised after a stronger second half of the year and the updated estimate indicates negative 3.5% GDP for the year. The CBO forecast for GDP to grow by 4.6% in 2021 and unemployment to continue to fall to average 5.7% for the year do not take into consideration the impact of the $1.9 trillion economic relief package, which is expected to further boost growth.

The custom consumer research for this Report was fielded in January 2021, and the report was written in March and April of 2021.

The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the US in January 2020. It was declared a global health pandemic and national emergency in early March 2020. Across the US, various stay-at-home orders were put in place in spring 2020, and non-essential businesses and school districts closed or shifted to remote operations. The remainder of 2020 saw rolling stay-at-home and closure orders, as states and local governments relaxed and reinforced guidelines according to the spread of the virus in each region.

Vaccine rollout began in December 2020. Based on current estimates of vaccine production and distribution, the US could reach herd immunity, with 70-85% of the population vaccinated, by late summer to early fall 2021. Mintel anticipates business operations in the US will remain in a state of flux through 2021 as the vaccine is widely administered.