A Little Salty Snack: Market Drivers and The Advantage of Choice

Do most of your customers crave salty or sweet snacks? Do they most often purchase chips, nuts, and cured meat selections, or chocolate bars, baked goods, and other sugary treats? Believe it or not, it does vary from coast to coast, and even during different day parts.

Canadians love their salt much more than our American counterparts, who tend to opt for more sweet treats. In fact, salty snacks outsell sweet treats by a hefty 2:1 margin (on average), making them an important part of our product offering. You may be wondering why this is. Part of it is physiological, and sometimes even psychological. On the physiological side, the body uses sodium for many regulatory processes; our adrenal glands regulate sodium in the body which is often affected by stress levels. When we are stressed or fatigued, the body reacts accordingly which triggers the desire for salt at key times during the day. The psychological side is simple; we don’t realize how addictive sugar and salt can be! Our brains get easily wired to enjoy things which makes us happy, and these impulse opportunities allow us to see sales throughout the day versus during traditional mealtimes so we cannot ignore them. We all know how important impulse sales are to our industry.

In 2018, Health Canada released updated guidelines as part of the Healthy Eating Strategy which recommended Canadians reduce their sodium intake to between 1,500mg and 2,300mg per day, or the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt. Packaged products such as salty (and sweet) snacks are always the first area that gets blamed for our salt consumption in Canada, but this is a popular misconception. Most of the salt in the Canadian diet comes from processed foods and ingredients in many common food items such as breads, baked goods, meat, and cheese in addition to the salt added at the dinner table or during cooking.

In addition to the flavour sensation (yes Canadian’s love the taste of salt), sodium regulates so many functions in the body; it is also used as a stabilizer and preservative (helping to extend the shelf life which we all rely on in the industry) so we cannot do without it. After many years of recommending companies voluntarily reduce sodium in products, the overall impact on the Canadian diet has been minimal (less than a 10% reduction), which has changed Health Canada’s strategy to scale back the requirements. Is our industry to blame for not doing our part?  Not at all, consumer tastes and preferences will always drive purchasing decisions.

What have we seen as a part of these endeavors? There has been a gradual reduction of sodium in our packaged products, however most of these have been done carefully and without a lot of attention (a concept called “Stealth Health” which we talked about last year). Believe it or not, many of your staple offerings including snack bars, nuts, and energy bars have actually gone through small reformulations, and the sodium levels have been reduced a little, however the customers never noticed. The other area we continue to see this trend is in the variety of lower sodium options (for example “lightly salted”) which responds to some consumer interest in trying to make small changes to their diet. 

So How Can Vending and Micro Market Operators Take Advantage of This?

It is no surprise that we will have to continue listening to our clients’ preferences; consider adding a lightly salted SKU as an alternate offering. Newer protein bars and energy bars could now  be considered as a lower sodium option (more so than ever before); it’s all about continuing to offer choice!

Need assistance in sourcing items lower sodium offerings for your vending, office coffee, or micro-market operation? Let Complete Purchasing Services (CPS) Vending (formerly Univend) help you to find the perfect mix of products for your customer base.

About the Author:

Brian Emmerton is a Registered Dietitian and the Vice President and General Manager of Complete Purchasing Services Inc, a leading supply chain solutions provider for hospitality and non-commercial clients in Canada. Brian has been working in foodservice and consumer affairs for over 30 years to help clients keep up to date on consumer trends and opportunities that help drive revenue and repeat business. Learn more about Complete Purchasing Services by visiting eCPS.ca.