Alternative-Ingredient Snacks: United States Report

Report Overview

This report forecasts to 2029 US alternative-ingredient snack retail sales in nominal US dollars. Total demand is segmented by product in terms of: salty snacks and crackers.

To illustrate historical trends, total demand and the various segments are provided in annual series from 2019 to 2024.

This report includes the results of a proprietary national online consumer survey of US adults (age 18+). This Freedonia Focus Reports National Online Consumer Survey has a sample size of approximately 1,501, screened for response quality, and representative of the US population on the demographic measures of age, gender, geographic region, race/ethnicity, household income, and the presence/absence of children in the household.

This report focuses on the following alternative-ingredient formulation trends within the salty snack and cracker segments of the retail packaged foods market: pulses such as beans, chickpeas (garbanzos), dried peas, and lentils; specialty grain formulations, including multi-grain, whole grain, and ancient grains; and vegetables other than potato used as the primary or secondary ingredient to create the snack. For the sake of brevity, this report refers to these specific products as “alternative-ingredient” snacks, salty snacks, crackers, and so forth – although of course the full spectrum of snacks with alternative ingredients (which can be variously defined) is wider.

The salty snacks segment is defined as containing the following types of snacks: potato chips, tortilla/tostada chips, other salted snacks (not including nuts), pretzels, cheese snacks, corn snacks (not including tortilla chips), ready-to-eat popcorn/caramel corn, and pork rinds. The crackers segment comprises the following major product types: crackers with fillings, or sandwich crackers; graham crackers; saltines; and matzoh, breadsticks, and “all other crackers”. However, it is important to note that alternative-ingredient snacks span only a subset of the above salty snack and cracker segments.

Key macroeconomic indicators are also provided with quantified trends. Other various topics, including profiles of pertinent leading companies, are covered in this report. A full outline of report items by page is available in the Table of Contents.

Related NAICS Codes

Table of Contents

• HIGHLIGHTS
• MARKET ENVIRONMENT
  • Historical Trends
  • Key Economic Indicators
  • Marketing Trends
  • Demographic Trends
  • Retail Trends
• PRODUCT SEGMENTATION & FORECASTS
  • Salty Snacks
  • Crackers
• INDUSTRY STRUCTURE
  • Industry Characteristics
  • Market Leaders
• ABOUT THIS REPORT
  • Scope
  • Sources
  • Industry Codes
  • Freedonia Methodology
  • Resources
• LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES
  • Figure 1 | Key Trends in US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales, 2024 – 2029
  • Figure 2 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales Trends, 2019 – 2024
  • Table 1 | Key Indicators for US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales; 2019, 2024, 2029 (US$ bil)
  • Figure 3 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales by Product, 2019 – 2029 (US$ mil)
  • Table 2 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales by Product, 2019 – 2024 (US$ mil)
  • Table 3 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales by Product, 2024 – 2029 (US$ mil)
  • Figure 4 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales by Product Performance Index, 2019 – 2029 (2019=1.00)
  • Table 4 | Terms Used for Alternative-Ingredient Product Searches
  • Figure 5 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales w/ Disposable Personal Income, 2019 – 2029
  • Table 5 | US Survey: Eating Restrictions/Preferences, 2025 (number of respondents)
  • Table 6 | US Survey: Priority Placed on Food Characteristics, 2025 (% of respondents)
  • Table 7 | US Survey: Use of Weight Loss Drugs, 2025 (number & % of respondents)
  • Figure 6 | US Alternative-Ingredient Snack Retail Sales by Product, 2019 – 2029 (%)