Not Just for Road Trips Anymore: Trends in Jerky and Meat Snacks Packaging

Progressive Grocer reports that "amid a total snack food category exceeding $13 billion, meat snacks generated more than $383 million in sales for the year ending Dec. 19, 2015, according to data from Schaumburg, Ill.-based Nielsen. Their 14.5 percent growth in sales for that period was second only to popped popcorn." So jerky products beat out all other snack foods to be number two on the list of fastest growing snack categories! As a supplier of flexible packaging machines for food, this is a trend we have been seeing as well, and one for which we're busy creating custom snacks packaging solutions. 

Why Jerky? It's About Changing Diets and Attitudes Toward Nutrition 

Via Progressive Grocer, a leading meat snack manufacturer comments on the growth of this segment of the snack industry: "America’s increasing interest in lean protein and reducing carbs put jerky in a fantastic position for growth. Couple the health-and-wellness trends with the increase in snacking, especially among Millennials, and it clearly explains the double-digit growth that the category has experienced." As we've reported here, here, and here, the Millennial demographic is changing the landscape of many markets with their unique consumer behavior built around desires for convenience, 'clean' ingredients, and values-based purchasing. 

Meat snacks like jerky used to be mainly relegated to convenience store fare. Consumers would grab them on the go, giving them a reputation for 'road trip' snacks. Not particularly being viewed as health food, they were not prominently featured in major grocery chains, much less in health food markets.

Today, jerky has transformed from a convenient snack food into a product that is touted by some manufacturers as healthy and natural. Meat jerky companies are now featuring snack products made from grass-fed beef, adding in fresh vegetable and spice ingredients, cutting added sugars, and creating novel flavor combinations. There are now dehydrated meat-based bars and jerky snack mixes. Like craft beer and coffee, jerky is truly becoming a gourmet, hip market.

As paleo, low carbohydrate, and ketogenic lifestyles become more mainstream, non-refrigerated meat snacks have filled an important need for convenience snacks in this market. The 'grab-n-go' aspect of dehydrated jerky products is very appealing to those who want a quick protein-filled, low sugar snack.

Flexible Packaging Machinery Requirements for Meat Snacks Packaging

1. Premade custom pouches. This bag type is very popular in the jerky and meat snack industry, and in the snacks packaging market in general. Convenient, portable, and providing a great canvas for communicating the company's values, these preformed pouches are often fabricated with zippers and easy-open options like tear notches. Automatic premade pouch filling machinery easily picks up, opens, fills, and seals these packages at high speeds.

2. Modifications to increase shelf life. Meat snack products like jerky often necessitate a form of modified atmosphere packaging like gas flush. This option blasts nitrogen gas into the pouch after product filling and before bag sealing to displace ambient oxygen. This decreases the risk of oxidation that leads to spoilage and increases the shelf life of the product.

Another option often used with jerky is the insertion of an oxygen scavenger packet after product filling and before pouch sealing. Similar to gas flush, this small packet absorbs oxygen within the package to increase product safety and extend shelf life. Rotary Premade Pouch Machines can easily accommodate additional stations for gas flush and oxygen packet insertion.

3. Cleaning and sanitation requirements. Often when packaging meat-based snacks, plant requirements call for washdown cleaning of food packaging machinery. With an IP Rating of up to 67, our rotary premade pouch fillers can withstand harsh sanitation procedures with powerful jets of water and caustic chemical solutions. 

4. Product settling issues. Because of non-uniform piece sizes, jerky products often need some shaking and tapping to allow for the product to settle before sealing. The addition of a product settling station helps to create a more attractive, uniform package and allows for unimpeded sealing of preformed pouches.

5. Product filler specifications. Dehydrated meat products necessitate careful filling and can pose unique challenges because of their non-uniform shapes. Based on a client's specific application, we may recommend a cup filler for whole jerky products, a multi-head blending scale solution for jerky mixes, or a custom configuration based upon product evaluation and testing.

The Future of Jerky and Meat Snack Products

Times are changing in the snack food landscape. Progressive Grocer offers their predictions as to the jerky market of the future:

• Use of unique proteins and flavor profiles
• Higher levels of meat quality
• Cross marketing of jerky products in store departments like deli, natural foods, craft beers, and nutritional bars and mixes
• More prominent displays in grocery stores
• Reduction of added sugars in meat snacks
• A wider acceptance of jerky products as healthful and part of a balanced diet
• Adoption of jerky as a snack food among female demographic

As the hot snack of the present and future, jerky and meat snacks have received a makeover. Now marketed as healthy, natural, and driven by values of whole ingredients and agricultural responsibility, this former 'road trip' food has transformed into the convenient snack of choice for many consumers, especially those in the Millennial demographic.

Have a jerky product that needs a packaging and marketing makeover? Want to expand your current jerky offerings into snack mixes and meal replacement bars? Contact the snacks packaging experts at Viking Masek and let us use our decades of experience to guide you to the most efficient, reliable choice in flexible packaging machinery.