In 2022: How does the Super Bowl, before it starts, affect the big business of snack manufacturing?

When we think of the Super Bowl or the National Football League’s championship “Big Game”, we think of food, especially the variety of snacks.

Whether we gather around a big screen TV at home or enjoy a pre-game party in the stadium parking lot, it’s all about the food: Chips, popcorn, pretzels, dips, crackers and more are “Big Game” staples.

How much do we love snacking this time of year? The U.S. Census Bureau offers a lot of data that provides insight into our love of snacking.

We love snacking

Snack manufacturing consists of establishments primarily engaged in one or more of the following activities:

• Salting, roasting, drying, drying, cooking or canning nuts.
• Processing grains or seeds into snacks.
• Manufacturing peanut butter.
• Manufacturing potato chips, corn chips, popped popcorn, pretzels (except soft), cracklins and similar snacks.

According to the 2019 County Business Patterns (CBP), there were 717 Snack Manufacturing establishments in the United States that employed 62,758 paid workers during the pay period including March 12 in 2019.

CBP shows that the state with the highest number of Snack Manufacturing establishments was California with 141, followed by Texas (59) and Pennsylvania (56).

Snack manufacturing statistics for the Big Game.

According to the 2017 Economic Census, there were 667 establishments in the United States, with 56,516 employees and sales of $38.8 billion in 2017.

According to the 2020-2019 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), snack manufacturing establishments had sales of $40.4 billion in 2020 and $39.6 billion in sales in 2019.

Snack sales soar during Super Bowl week.

Total snack sales soared 12.5% to $487 million during Super Bowl 2021 week, according to new data from IRI. The biggest sales increases by category for Super Bowl week are tortilla chips, potato chips, pretzels, pork rinds and refrigerated dips.

The data revealed an interesting fact about snacking in the COVID era, according to SNAC International. Snacking sales volume and spending increased from 2020 to 2021, indicating that snack consumption grew regardless of whether the play took place with traditional holidays or gatherings or amid COVID precautions. The data points to a bright future for growth in this sector.

In total, Americans consume 112 million pounds of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, or the equivalent of 270 jumbo jets.

Meanwhile, the Fifth Annual Frito-Lay Super Bowl Snack Index found that preferences, especially those of Generation Z (79%) and Millennials (83%), lean toward spicy snacks as their choice during Super Bowl Sunday. However, despite the trend toward spicier snacks, older generations still prefer to buy the classic flavors they’ve known for years, including 62% of Baby Boomers and 46% of Generation X, versus 32% of Generation Z and 30% of Millennials.

In addition, 27% of Snack Index respondents said they are most looking forward to trying snacks they’ve never tried before when they snack on something at the Super Bowl, and the majority of adults (72%) plan to buy their snacks for the Big Game at the grocery store, up 5% from last year, compared with 8% who will order them online for delivery and another 7% who plan to buy them at a convenience store.

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