The economics of snacking: a $347bn business

The differences between these cultures is larger than size, however. North Americans favour salty flavours, with nearly a quarter of spending going toward savoury snacks last year. Europeans have a sweeter tooth, spending $47bn - that’s 28pc of total snack sales - on confectionery. Refrigerated foods, such as yoghurt and cheese, was the second most popular snack category in both regions, and the top-ranked group in Asia-Pacific.

Snackers in the Middle East and Africa also prefer confections, while almost a third of Latin Americans buy their snacks in the cookies and cakes aisle.

Putting differences aside, the report also looks at what snackers have in common. The Nielsen survey polled 30,000 consumers in 60 countries, and found that the world’s favourite snack is - somewhat surprisingly - a piece of fruit. Almost a fifth of respondents said they would choose fresh fruit if they had to pick one fruit above all others, with 15pc plumping for chocolate as their number one snack.

You can’t always trust what people say, however. They might like to think that they’d go for fruit over a less healthy option - but the world’s most eaten snack is chocolate.

When asked what snack they had eaten in the past 30 days, 64pc of respondents said chocolate, compared to 62pc who said fruit. Vegetables rounded out the top three, closely followed by cookies, biscuits and bread.

To be fair, when recently eating habits are broken down by geographical region, Europeans do eat fruit more than any other snack, at just one percentage point ahead of chocolate. For North Americans, meanwhile, fruit gets nudged down to fifth place, behind chips, chocolate, cheese and cookies.

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