Guest Columns

Perspective:
Dairy Marketing

Snacking segment calls, Wisconsin Cheese answers

Suzanne Isige

Suzanne Isige, director of market research for Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, is a guest columnist for Cheese Market News®.

Americans are snacking more than ever before, and an increasing number of consumers are choosing cheese snacks to fit their lifestyles, whether for health, pleasure or convenience.

One of the goals of the Insights and Information Team at Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin (DFW) is to arm dairy companies with data that helps identify, understand and capitalize on opportunities in the cheese market.

Snack cheese is a sizable segment (9.1%) of the much larger category, and by digging deeper into each segment, we can find pockets of growth and identify the product attributes that are resonating with consumers right now.

Consumers consider many factors when choosing snacks. These include taste, value, convenience and sustainability, but one of the top considerations is based on health. For the majority, health is about much more than just counting calories or the absence of disease. Two in five consumers list a desire to “feel well” as the driver behind their push to live a healthier lifestyle, and 61% of consumers see a healthy, nutritious diet as the key to achieving these goals.

For some consumers, a healthy diet means limiting certain aspects, like sugar, carbs, fat or overall food intake. But a greater number of consumers are focused on balancing their diets and incorporating more foods that have a positive impact on their health. So, the focus is less on cutting out the bad and more on incorporating the good. While 40% of consumers are eating healthier snacks, 32% are specifically seeking out nutrient-rich snacks.

Cheese is a great example of exactly that kind of nutrient-rich snack because it is a source of key nutrients, not least of which is protein. With more consumers adding high-protein foods to their diets, there is great potential for cheese to play a greater role in meeting their snacking needs.

But snacking isn’t just about nutrition; it’s also viewed as a source of pleasure. Consumers (62%) are seeking everyday moments of happiness — a need that smaller, indulgent treats can help fulfill. And this ultimately circles back to the desire for wellness, as three in five consumers say snacking boosts their emotional well-being.

The top three drivers that consumers use to create enjoyable eating occasions are fresh ingredients, good value for money and richness of flavor. Homemade or handmade items come in at No. 4, and nutritional benefits are fifth. So, the real sweet spot for consumers comes in combining the sensory enjoyment of the snack itself with the knowledge that it is also contributing to their overall wellness.

Wisconsin Cheese meets several of these needs. Among U.S. cheese shoppers, Wisconsin leads other domestic and international origins coming in at 62% versus the next-highest origin (33%), with imagery attributed to great taste. When defining our snack cheese segment within our retail sales database, we focused on cheese that is packaged with an eye toward being consumed primarily as a snack. This includes both single-serve packages or individually wrapped portions, as well as larger packages of cheese in snackable forms. Consumers can pull an 8-ounce chunk of aged Cheddar out of the fridge, cut it up and serve it with crackers even though it may be purchased for other uses as well. However, individually wrapped 1-ounce portions of Cheddar are specifically targeted for snacking occasions.

Total snack cheese sales came in just shy of 415 million pounds in 2022. Sales had steady growth between 2017 and 2021 before declining last year, when inflation drove a 1.1% decline in total cheese sales. However, various snack cheese segments performed differently during this period:

• While sales of String cheese were down in 2022, the sales of this product grew 6 million pounds between 2017 and 2022. This segment accounted for 20% of total snack cheese volume growth since 2017.

• Sales of cubes, curds and bites bucked inflation-driven trends with modest growth last year (+1%), with Colby/Jack and Cheddar being the most popular varieties within this segment. Jalapeño cheese sales jumped 34% in this segment.

• While still a niche segment, cheese crisp sales had tremendous growth through 2021. The average price for this segment was $27 per pound in 2022, compared to under $7 for total snack cheese, so it’s not surprising that cheese crisp sales had a particularly large inflation-driven decline (-21%). Parmesan dominates the segment — accounting for three-fifths of sales—but several other varieties are also represented, and sales of Italian blend crisps jumped 20% in 2022.

There are signs that inflation will ease as this year progresses, and as it does, we expect consumers to turn back to some of the higher-value items that they may have cut back on in 2022.

Wisconsin crafts more than 600 types, styles and varieties of cheese, offering consumers variety and value as convenient, often portion-controlled items that can be consumed on the go. These consumers’ needs haven’t gone away, so we expect the snack cheese segment will be a growth driver for the cheese category in the long term.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

DFW disclaimer: The consumer trends information comes from Innova Market Insights. The retail data comes from DFW’s Custom Cheese Database from Circana (formerly Information Resources Inc.).

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