Bite-size treats eat into the snack market grows

Snack foods on display at a trade fair in Hefei, Anhui province. Food in small packages are becoming popular, especially among women consumers. [Photo by A Jin / Visual China / CFP]

Fun nutritious snacks are being rolled out by the food industry to entice Chinese consumers who are looking for healthy options.

Mondelez International Inc, the multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate based in the United States, has launched a range of bite-sized products such as Oreo Bowties, Oreo Flute and Mini Oreo.

With the emphasis on healthy products, Mondelez is hoping that 25 percent of sales revenue will come from these products by 2020.

Last year, 22.4 percent of revenue was from "better choice options", a term used by Mondelez to describe snacks which meet a certain nutritional criteria.

Since 2012, such individually wrapped products have jumped by 16 percent, according to figures released by the snacks giant.

"This reflects consumers' growing needs of weight control while snacking," said Ruyi Xu, head of research at Mintel Group China, a market research company based in the United Kingdom.

Data from Mintel has showed that small-sized biscuit packets, containing less than 51 grams, are proving popular with shoppers. In the 12 months to January 2012, market share in these products was just 8 percent. But in the 12 months to January 2015, that increased to 11 percent. During the same period, Mintel figures highlighted that large-sized biscuit packets, containing 500 grams, dropped from 17 percent in 2012 to 11 percent in 2015.