Today's CPG brands are always looking for ways to make their sweet or salty snacks more satisfying. Using healthy ingredients that taste good is one way to ensure consumers get the most from their snacking experiences and can be touted in CPG marketing campaigns to attract new users.
Here are some of the top healthy ingredients you can incorporate into your sweet or salty snacks.
1. Vegetables
Most Americans do not get enough vegetables in their diets. Any time a CPG product can add vegetables to a snack product, it will instantly boost the health benefits of that product. Vegetables can be pureed, dehydrated, or substituted for other ingredients to achieve health-boosting effects, often without impacting taste. Adding vegetables will also boost vitamins and antioxidants in the snack food, often without adding a large number of calories, fat, and carbohydrates.
2. Protein
Many packaged snacks have little or no protein, but it's easy to add in the form of whey, casein, or naturally from cheese, nuts, meats, or whole grains. Adding protein to your CPG snack will add to its cost, but consumers looking for protein-rich snacks are often willing to pay more for them. You may even find you can increase your profit margin by adding protein and raising the price to what the market will bear.
3. Stevia
Adding stevia to sweet snacks can make them significantly healthier. Many consumers avoid sugar because of its negative health impacts like weight gain and inflammation, or because they're diabetic and need to maintain blood sugar control. Stevia is a natural sweetener that's up to 100 times sweeter than sugar, so only a small amount is needed to reach equivalent sweetness.
4. Monk Fruit
Monk fruit is another sweetener that offers a taste similar to sugar in products like baked goods and candy. While monk fruit is natural, it's sometimes mixed with erythritol to give it the same consistency and volume as sugar.
5. Seasonings
Most seasonings don't add significant calories, fat or carbohydrates, but they do add flavor, which can build interest in your CPG product. Experimenting with different seasonings can produce enough different flavors to make a variety pack of your product, thus increasing sales for those who want to explore different tastes.
6. Whole Grains
There isn't much nutritional value in many CPG snack products like crackers, cookies, or chips. Whole grains have more fiber, B vitamins, iron, folate, selenium, potassium, and magnesium than snacks made with refined white flour, which may also contain bleach or even pesticide residue that can enter people's systems and cause health problems.
Making your snack products healthier can have an impact on your CPG brand voice and help you develop a reputation for health consciousness and quality snack products. For more information about CPG marketing or to get the latest brand voice news, subscribe to the Hangar-12 blog.