Wander through the grocery store today and you will see plenty of new snack options on display. You can find cheese paired with meats, nuts, dried fruit, and crackers or pretzels. You’ll find snack-sized portions of cheese, grab-and-go yogurt, and even cream cheese designed for on-the-go lifestyles. Processors I spoke with cite studies saying snacks represent half of all eating occasions. Half. That’s significant and should suggest a focus for new product development. 

This change in eating occasions can be attributed to increasingly busy and on-the-go lifestyles which have reshaped consumers’ eating patterns in the United States. Meal patterns that include multiple snacks throughout the day are now widely accepted as the new normal, said Chicago-based Mintel, in an April 2015 report.