Exploring Consumers’ Situational Snacking Behaviors Using a Mobile App: Longitudinal Cohort Study (FOODLOOP) Among Millennials in the Netherlands

Background: Consumers are increasingly moving away from the traditional 3-meal-a-day eating routine to a pattern where they are snacking throughout the day to fulfill dietary needs, a trend known as "snackification." Snacking depends on a variety of product-, context-, and consumer-specific determinants, but consumers' long-term snacking behaviors in light of these determinants have remained little studied. Objective: This study aims to enhance understanding of consumers' snacking behaviors by capturing longitudinal real-world situational snacking behaviors. As snackification is highly prominent in the Netherlands, and especially among millennials (born between 1980 and 2000), Dutch millennials were used as a case study. Methods: FOODLOOP studied situational snacking behaviors of a cohort of 264 Dutch millennials over the course of a year through a time-series structure. Data were collected on 12 nonconsecutive days, divided over the 4 seasons, using the mobile app Traqq (Department of Human Nutrition and Health of Wageningen University) and following the principles of ecological momentary assessment. Results: On average, 4.52 snacks were consumed per day, of which 64% were more healthful snacks, including coffee, tea, fruit, and bread products. Snacking was mostly driven by the food choice motives liking and appetite, as well as hunger and thirst, convenience, and pleasure. Most snacking occurred at home, with others, in the afternoon, and in spring. Dutch millennials with children consumed more snacks than Dutch millennials without children, and Dutch millennials born between 1980 and 1990 consumed more snacks than Dutch millennials born between 1990 and 2000. Conclusions: Our study shows that situational snacking determinants are essential for understanding consumers' real-world snacking behaviors, as Dutch millennials' snacking behaviors differ given product-, context-, and consumer-specific determinants, and are not restricted to specific motives, locations, social settings, or times, congruent with the ongoing snackification trend. We also demonstrate that a mobile app following the principles of ecological momentary assessment is a highly valuable methodological tool to gather longitudinal data on consumers' situational snacking behaviors.