What Is Gen Z's Favorite Snack? The Data Might Surprise You

Everyone's got a theory. Turns out there's actual data, and it's more interesting than "Gen Z just eats whatever's viral."

The short answer: chips, still

Despite years of "healthy snacking" headlines, chips and crisps remain the single most popular snack category - 53% of snackers reach for them weekly, just barely ahead of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit at 51%. Chips aren't going anywhere. What's changed is which chips win.

The nuance: Gen Z wants it both ways, and gets it

Here's the part that surprises people: 77% of Gen Z say they consider nutrition when making food choices, way ahead of Baby Boomers at 54%. But taste, flavor intensity, and convenience still outrank health and freshness when it actually comes down to what goes in the cart. Translation: nobody's choosing a boring "healthy" snack over a good one. They want both.

That's exactly the gap that ingredient-transparent snacks are filling. Younger shoppers are driving demand for simpler ingredient lists, real transparency, and snacks that don't need a nutritionist to decode without giving up flavor to get there.

The trends stacking on top of that

A few more things showing up consistently in 2026 snacking data:

• Snackification is real. 71% of Gen Z say on-the-go snacks are more enjoyable than sitting down for a full meal; snacks aren't a placeholder anymore, they're the meal.

• Functional matters. Snacks tied to gut health and protein are trending hard, with protein-forward snack conversations up 17% year over year.

• TikTok picks the winners. Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z use TikTok for food discovery, and visual appeal - how a snack looks, sounds, and photographs- genuinely influences what gets bought.

So, where does that leave a plantain chip?

Right in the middle of all of it, honestly. Chifle Kong is a chip, the category Gen Z already reaches for most. It's three ingredients (plantains, oil, salt), so there's nothing to decode on the label. It's portable enough for the "snack as a meal" moment. And plantains bring a natural resistant-starch, gut-friendly angle to the table without anyone having to call it a "functional snack" with a straight face.

It's not chasing the trend. It's just what a chip looks like when you don't overthink the ingredient list.

Try it yourself

Grab a bag at chiflekong.com and follow @chiflekong on Instagram or @chiflekong on TikTok, see for yourself if it earns a spot in your weekly 53%.

Still a chip. Just a better one.