Hot and Spicy Snack Trends Help Ignite Sales
Originally published on letschatsnacks.com
The temperature may be dropping outside, but consumers are in the midst of a heat crave, and there’s no end in sight. 78% of consumers enjoy foods with some kick to them, and 55% typically crave spicy flavors.
Sweet Heat is Trending
As a result, the country’s 500 top-selling restaurants are adding the sweetness of fruit, brown sugar and honey to enhance spicy flavors–a trend seen in popular barbecue and wing sauces.3 While Louisiana-style hot sauce is the most popular sauce among foodservice outlets, habanero is hot on its heels–especially those varieties, like habanero mango, that have fruit flavors.2
Meanwhile, major packaged goods brands are marketing more sweet and spicy options that not only offer bolder flavors but fit a better-for-you, millennial-friendly profile with more vegetable servings and less fat, sugar and processed ingredients.
For more ideas on how to add some spice to your offerings, click HERE!
1 Technomic, Flavor Consumer Trend Report, 2015
2 Thorn, Bret, “Spicy food sizzles on restaurant menus,” Nation’s Restaurant News, March 12, 2015,
http://nrn.com/food-trends/spicy-food-sizzles-restaurant-menus
3 Tristano, Darren, Spice, Flavor Trends in Foodservice, Prepared Foods, Feb. 11, 2016,
http://www.preparedfoods.com/articles/117694-spice-flavor-trends-in-foodservice