Consumers Won’t Let The Chips Fall Hottest New Food Products Reflect Rebellion Against Healthy Eating
The American consumer of today is more health conscious than consumers of the past, right? Maybe not. Recent sales statistics show that the hottest new food products of the past two years are mainly snack and beer products.
The list from Information Resources Inc., an analytic consulting group based in Chicago, showed that Tostitos salsas - created to complement Tostitos tortilla chips, made by Texas-based Frito-Lay, were the top selling item of the 10 new food products in both 1994 and 1995 with $227.9 million in sales.
Frito-Lay spokeswoman Lynn Markley said the salsas, first put on the market in 1993, caught on partly because of an overall renewal of interest in snacking by U.S. consumers.
“Snacking has literally become a fourth meal,” Markley said. “In studies done by our company we have found that 25 percent of calories that are consumed are consumed through snacking.”
Frito Lay, a division of PepsiCo, also produced the next two best selling new snacks - Frito-Lay Wavy Lays and Frito-Lay Baked Tostitos - which sold $197.6 million and $162.3 million, respectively.
Nabisco spokeswoman Ann Smith said consumers were buying products like her company’s fat-free enriched SnackWell’s Snack Bars ($159.9 million in sales for the past two years) simply because they enjoy the taste.
“People still are looking for the health benefits of fat-free foods, but they will not give up on taste,” Smith said.
However, she said one of Nabisco’s other products, Chunky Chips Ahoy with $125.2 million in sales for the past two years, was reformulated to cater to consumers’ not-so-health conscious tastes.
According to Smith, a 6-year-old product was recreated to be the “Cadillac of chocolate chip cookies” with at least 1,000 chocolate chips in every box.
“We know that people are reading labels more, but they are also being kinder to themselves,” she said. “The idea that moderation is key is starting to come to the forefront.”
Food industry analysts say the results of the study can be taken one step further: Heightened sales in snack foods and beer are just a symptom of a larger trend toward rebellion against healthy eating.
“We talk as if we eat healthy, but our actions speak much louder than our words,” said Steven Toomey, food analyst and vice president of equity research for George K. Baum & Co.
“People kept hearing ‘You need to eat this, you shouldn’t eat that. You can’t drink this, you can’t drink that.’ Now people are saying, ‘I’m spending my money, so I’m going to eat what I want to eat.”’
George Thompson, food and beverages analyst for Prudential Securities Research, said the number of snacks on the list was evidence that Americans “talk a great game.”
Thompson said there also was some question over exactly what can be specified as a healthy product. He said medical experts were now saying that drinking two beers in the course of the day may actually be healthy for some people.
That makes Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser Ice Draft (with $146.9 million in sales in the past two years) and Miller Brewery’s Miller Light Ice (with $127.2 million in sales) healthier products than one might think.
There also is some information suggesting that the consumer of today is not snacking with complete abandonment.
Nestle Food Co., based in Glendale, Calif., made it into the top 10 list with its Sweet Success Diet Aids, which sold $158.3 million in 1994 and 1995.
Other products listed are Orville Redenbacher Reden Budders (a highly buttered microwave popcorn described by Orville Redenbacher spokeswoman Kay Carpenter as “one of the company’s more indulgent products”), which sold $131.3 million, and Ragu Hearty Spaghetti Sauce, which sold $114.1 million.
xxxx TOP-SELLING FOODS Based on sales of most popular new foods introduced in 1994 and 1995. List includes product, manufacturer and sales figures: 1. Tostitos salsas, Frito-Lay, $227.9 million in sales. 2. Wavy Lays, FritoLay, $197.6 million. 3. Baked Tostitos, Frito-Lay, $162.3 million. 4. SnackWell’s Snack Bars, Nabisco, $159.9 million.