Embracing healthier lifestyles as a borderless & non-cultural movement

Today, living a healthier lifestyle is a universal goal that transcends borders and cultures. Consumers across the diverse areas of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) embracing healthier lifestyles, with a growing awareness of the impact of diet on overall wellbeing.

Healthy snacking reflects this movement and becomes a solution for many to not just curbing hunger but also about providing essential nutrients, sustaining energy levels, and supporting overall health. Hence, also the market is witnessing a shift towards high protein and fiber-rich bases, natural alternatives or low fats, sugars, and salts.

Many consumers nowadays value healthy snacking as a simple and effective way to maintain nutrient intake, manage weight and following a more active and healthier lifestyle in a fast-paced world.

Designing the ideal healthy snack includes challenges

While consumers increasingly seek healthier products, taste and optimal sensory experiences remain key to satisfy all demands. Designing the ideal healthy snack is always a balancing act.

High protein and fiber-rich bases are on trend, but some nutritious base ingredients like lentils or soy and peas carry unwanted off-notes that can negatively influence the mouthfeel or provide unpleasant tastes to the healthy snack.

Additionally, oils and fats play a crucial role in creating rich mouthfeel and make snacking a pleasure. Reduction of fat can impact the complexity, strength and flavor release of the final product and cause ‘dryness’.

Over the past decades, consumers, retailers, and regulators have grown increasingly aware of the detrimental health effects associated with sodium intake. WHO Member states adopted a voluntary goal target of 30% reduction in mean population salt intake by 2025, for instance. But also, sodium content has a big implication on great taste and beloved texture.

With a growing global focus on health and wellness, the demand for healthier snacking options is steadily increasing, shaping the industry. However, producers face numerous challenges in meeting this demand, as consumers are unwilling to compromise on taste when seeking healthier snacking alternatives. Just as with traditional snacks, the expectation for healthy snacks is to deliver a satisfying experience, providing indulgence, emotional comfort, and exciting flavors.

Vera Fedorova, Category Manager Healthy Snacks EAME

Mastering the Balancing Act

Mastering the challenges of designing the ideal healthy snack needs technical expertise, cutting-edge ingredient decoding tools, a comprehensive portfolio of flavors and natural ingredients, and profound consumer understanding.

Symrise has conducted different consumer insight studies around healthy snacking and leverages in-depth understanding of consumers and products across the EAME region. This enables us to foster new healthier product innovations. Moreover, a portfolio of multiple flavors and ingredients solutions provides endless creativity in creation. It enables inspiration but ensures to meet cultural taste preferences, too, as it important to provide tailored solutions to meet regional likings but leverage on global demands as well, always maintaining best taste experience.

Symrise has developed a wide range of taste solutions and proprietary technologies aimed at masking off-notes, improving mouthfeel and succulence of the base, and maximizing flavor performance in alternative base snacks. These so-called taste balancing solutions are summarized under Symrise's symlife™ brand. They help to reliably balance taste, texture, labeling and product costs to overcome taste challenges when developing the ideal healthy snack. Additionally, Symrise, through its diana food™ portfolio of chickpea flakes, meets the growing consumer demand for nutritious snack alternatives. High in proteins and fibers, these vegan and naturally sourced ingredients are a valuable nutritional ally for plant-based healthy snacks.

Empowering healthier lifestyles with great tasting healthy snacks!

In summary: Symrise is your partner to overcome the challenges when designing the ideal healthy snack. Combining technical expertise, ingredient and taste know-how and in-depth consumer understanding will help you to master the balancing act when it comes to great tasting but healthy experiences.

Follow Symrise Food & Beverage EAME LinkedIn page to stay up to date. Read our articles on healthy snacks to learn more about our capabilities and natural ingredients or get in touch to drive the movement of healthy lifestyles together.