It’s late in the afternoon as I write this, and boy could I use a snack! Who doesn’t like a good snack?

According to The Nielsen Company, “the total salty snack category accounted for more than $27.5 billion in sales across Nielsen-measured U.S. retail stores for the year ended Feb. 25, 2017.”

That’s a lot of snacks!

According to Nielsen, despite the fact that consumers want to eat better, snacking trends appear to be shifting away from snack bars, cereal snacks and dried fruits.

In addition, the potato chip category, which has more than $7.2 billion in annual sales, had a sales increase of just 1.7% for the recent year. Pretzels, meanwhile, lost 0.5% in sales in the last year, pulling in just under $1.5 billion.

Any meat snack fans out there? While potato chips and popcorn still lead the way, meat snacks are a growing snack category. Nielsen said the meat snack category – made up of jerky and sticks – has posted annual sales growth of more than 7% over the past four years. During that time, sales totaled $2.8 billion.

To be specific, American households spend an average of $25.81 per year on meat snacks. Other growing areas are pork and seafood snack products. (Yes, seafood snacks!)

What types of snacks do you like best? Are you in to meat (or seafood) snacks? Let me know!

It’s Not Too Late To Play Our Mystery Phrase Promotion
Do you want a chance to be one of five winners who’ll each receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card claim code?

Then take part in our Mystery Phrase promotion. Even if you don’t win, it’s a ton of fun to participate!

Here’s a reminder of what you have to do:

  • Read through our past blogs and look for eight highlighted words. (The words will be in bold and in red font.)
  • Construct a coherent NCP-related sentence – the so-called “Mystery Phrase” – using the eight highlighted words that you found. (The sentence must match NCP’s predetermined phrase. Please do not create your own phrase.)
  • Send your entry to [email protected] with the subject line, Mystery Phrase, and include your name and phone number (in case we need to contact you). Only one entry per person will be accepted.We’ve had a good response so far, but there’s still time to enter. The contest ends on Thursday, June 15.

Have a great weekend everyone!