7 New Snacks With Better-for-You, Spicy, Protein-Focused Ingredients

Salty snack makers are gearing up for summer in strategic ways—from unveiling new package designs to adding more spice.

Suppliers have momentum on their side; the broad salty snack category continues to grow unabated. For a 52-week period ending May 21, 2023, and reflecting multi-outlet units (grocery, drug, mass, dollar, military and select club stores), salty snacks grew 15.6% in dollar sales while units were off less than 1%, according to the most recent data from Chicago-based IRI/Circana.

A $29.7-billion market, corn snacks were the pacesetters for the salty snack category, with a 30.1% increase in dollar sales and units up 12.8%. Flashing a consistently impressive performance across the sector, all segments except one grew in double digits and ranging from 10.8% to 18.8%. This included potato chips, other salty snacks, tortilla/tostada, cheese snacks, pretzels and RTE popcorn/caramel corn. Only pork rinds dragged down the surge, once again losing dollars (4.6% for the year period).

One brand, Popcornopolis, expanded its popcorn portfolio with the Nearly Naked collection and unveiled a new design.

“As we strive to meet the needs of modern consumers, we are excited to introduce a new look, while creating delicious flavors and using the same high-quality ingredients that our consumers have come to love,” said Daniela Simpson, chief marketing officer for Popcornopolis.

Pringles introduced Pringles Harvest Blends.

“From our classic favorites to our sizzling Scorchin’ collection, Pringles fans have long enjoyed our great taste and insanely accurate flavors,” said Mauricio Jenkins, U.S. marketing lead for Pringles. “With Pringles Harvest Blends collection, we’re ecstatic [to deliver] an elevated tasting experience—one that is both familiar with the bold flavors our fans know and love, and completely unique with its irresistibly crunchy texture and flavorful blends of sweet potato and multigrain.”

Click ahead for seven recent debuts in packaged salty snacks that are now populating grocery in-line sets and spicing up endcap displays.

Made with premium ingredients, Popcornopolis is expanding its popcorn portfolio with the Nearly Naked collection and unveiling refreshed packaging. The new line, adding White Cheddar and Jalepeno Lime flavors, is available in cases of eight 4.5-ounce bags for $27.99 and club-size 14-ounce bags for $5.98. The collection contains 35 to 50 calories per cup and is gluten-free and non-GMO.

Pringles Harvest Blends (Kellogg Co.), offer multigrain and sweet potato flavor. With a crispy and crunchy texture, four flavor varieties include Pringles Harvest Blends Multigrain Farmhouse Cheddar, Pringles Harvest Blends Multigrain Homestyle Ranch, Pringles Harvest Blends Sweet Potato Sea Salt and Pringles Harvest Blends Sweet Potato Smoky BBQ.

Natural cereal brand Catalina Crunch is debuting its Crunch Mixes in single-serve grab-and-go snack size packs for its portfolio of cereals, sandwich cookies and crunch mixes. Catalina Crunch’s Crunch Mixes are keto-friendly and made with high protein and fiber, good fats, real ingredients and little to no sugar. Grab-and-go packs comes in 1.85-ounce packs in Traditional and Cheddar flavors.

Harvest Snaps unveiled Crunchy Loops Hot & Spicy—ring-shaped snacks with a blend of spices. Veggie loops are made with red lentils as the first ingredient (milled in-house for maximum nutrition) to provide 4 grams of plant protein and fiber per serving. Snacks are certified gluten free, non-GMO, vegetarian friendly and are free from preservatives, palm oil, soy, nuts, peanuts, wheat and eggs. Crunchy Loops Hot & Spicy is available in 4.5-ounce bags for an SRP of $3.30 per unit.

Flipz rolled out its Flipz State Fair pretzel lineup in two varieties, Flipz State Fair Churros and Flipz State Fair Strawberry Shortcake. Churros feature the brand’s signature salty and crunchy pretzels coated in cinnamon sugar with milk chocolate; Flipz State Fair Strawberry Shortcake are coated in fresh strawberry, sweet cream and buttery cake-flavored coating.

Kettle Brand introduced Kettle Brand Special Sauce Chips, combining a sweet tangy flavor and a light heat, all in a crunchy kettle-cooked chip. Regarded as saucy with hints of barbecue, honey mustard and ketchup, the limited-time flavor is available for an SRP of $4.29 per 7-ounce bag.

Whisps expanded its Bites line with Whisps Baked Cheese Bites—bite-sized versions of traditional Whisps cheese crisps that offer more than 50 pieces of baked cheese. It has 10 grams of protein per 1-ounce serving. The variety is available for an SRP of $4.98 per 3.75-ounce sharing size bag and $5.98 per multipack of six 7-ounce bags. Whisps also introduced a Buffalo flavor to its Cheese & Pretzel Bites line that combines hot sauce with cheddar cheese and pretzels (SRP of $4.98 per 4.5-ounce pouch).