UK Flavour Trends in Salty Snacks: 2026
Own-brand salty snacks are seen as just as flavoursome as branded ones by nearly two thirds of users.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- What you need to know
- Opportunities
- Build emotional connections to justify brands’ price premium
- Desire for naturalness competes with that for flavour and health
- Use novelty to drive engagement
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THE MARKET
- Weak consumer confidence keeps salty snacks spend under scrutiny
- Graph 1: financial wellbeing and confidence indices, 2019-26
- Restrictions on HFSS food and drink limit visibility for salty snacks
- Young adults’ growth supports salty snacks, falling birth rates pose a challenge
- Graph 2: population trends by age group, 2020-30
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THE CONSUMER
- Salty snacks enjoy near-universal usage
- Nine in 10 eat salty snacks, but they remain an occasional choice for many
- Graph 3: frequency of eating salty snacks, 2025
- Under-45s are core users
- Graph 4: eating of salty snacks, by frequency and age, 2025
- Leverage nostalgia and emotional connection
- Own-label challenges brands on taste
- Leveraging emotion can help brands defend against own-label
- Remind consumers of the emotional connections of tastes that have always been there
- Retro revival and partnering with nostalgic brands can reinforce nostalgia
- International launches offer inspiration on mining emotional connections
- Push and pull between natural and artificial continues
- Naturalness competes with taste and health
- No silver bullet to role of naturalness
- Go beyond implicit natural positioning
- Put ingredient lists front and centre
- Newness remains a rich connection point
- New flavours can unlock high spend occasions
- Flavour innovation is a powerful means to add value
- Make flavour a talking point
- Leverage in-store visibility
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PRODUCT, INNOVATION AND MARKETING
- Longstanding flavours continue to lead in salty snacks launches
- Graph 5: salty snacks launches by top flavour components, 2020-25
- Cheese remains a stalwart flavour
- Spice intensity rises, use heat scales to communicate spiciness
- Sweet flavours gain share, new hot pairings for honey hold potential
- NPD explores meal-inspired, sauce-forward and tangy/zesty flavours
- Brands use flavours to prompt interaction
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APPENDIX
- Report scope
- The market
- Population estimates
- The consumer
- Consumer research questions
- Consumer research methodology – EMEA
- UK generation groups
- Abbreviations
"Emotional connection, nostalgia and standout flavours offer routes for brands to defend market share. Novelty remains a key means to engage shoppers and add value."
Amy Bishop, Analyst UK Food & Drink Reports
Own-brand salty snacks are seen as just as flavoursome as branded ones by nearly two thirds of users. This view is particularly challenging as pressure on household budgets continues to drive a focus on price, favouring own-label. Emotional connection offers a much-needed means for brands to set themselves apart, including nostalgia.
Household finances remaining stretched means consumers remain cautious in their spending into 2026. This lends support to food/drink spend through retail, salty snacks benefiting from evenings in.
Innovation remains central to keeping users engaged. Continuous NPD has made new flavours an expectation, with many shoppers swayed by these. Improvements to household finances, though expected to be slow, will further dial up the need for NPD and for spotlighting it.
This Report Looks at the Following Areas:
- Key trends in recent launch activity and flavour development opportunities
- Usage of salty snacks and core users
- The opportunity for brands to defend against own-label through emotional connection and nostalgia
- The push and pull between naturalness and processing in salty snacks and the opportunities to hero naturalness on the one hand and to focus on nutrition on the other
- The need for salty snacks to offer newness given its sway among buyers and the potential for it to unlock high spend occasions
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