Snackification: our love affair with snacks

零食化:我们对零食的迷恋

The Food Chain

2025-05-15

26 分钟
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How did it snacking start and why do we do it? In this programme Ruth Alexander looks at the world of snacks. Have we always snacked or is it a more modern phenomenon that started with formal meal patterns? What snacks have been popular through the ages, what’s the industry doing now and what could we be eating in the future? We talk to food historians Dr Annie Gray and Professor Janis Thiessen, the former CEO of Unilever Paul Polman - who remembers the rise of some of the biggest brands - and Christine Cochran from the international trade association SNAC International. We also hear from snack fans across the world. If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
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  • Roasted peanuts, crisps, fizzy sweets, rice crackers,

  • mini peppers filled with garlic cheese, chocolate on top of bread.

  • We posted on the BBC World Service Facebook page asking, what's your favourite snack?

  • And these were just a few of the many, many things you like to nibble on.

  • Us humans have been snacking for thousands of years.

  • But in modern times, a huge industry has grown up around it.

  • I would say it's about $1.2 to $1.5 trillion worth of goods being sold in the snacking category.

  • And there are more products hitting the shelves every week.

  • We've got sweet potato casserole potato chips.

  • Sounds crazy, right?

  • We've got mixed berry lemonade-flavored chips, pink lemonade-flavored Kit Kats.

  • It's all about taste, convenience, indulgence.

  • A snack is an affordable luxury.

  • In this episode of The Food Chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander,

  • we're exploring why we're so in love with snack foods,

  • how they've gone from occasional treat to everyday staple.

  • We've become a snacking culture, in fact,

  • to the extent that we consume more of our food via snacking for many people than we have by the normal two or three sit-down meals that we grew up with.

  • We'll be finding out what's behind this seismic shift in how we eat,

  • how food is made and how it's marketed,