CHOCOLATE SNACK-THE FOURTH MEAL?

A manager of a top hypermarket believes that there is potential that a snack, chocolate for instance, can be considered as the fourth meal. Alternatively it can be a meal replacement.

He quotes the following trends which are evidently showing through at checkout.
Snacking at home is seeing a increment. Morning snacking is showing a strong growth.Especially with local snacks. Some snack foods are replacing or adding on to breakfasts. Some snacks, like chocolate, is combined with meals as dessert. Or a snack to relax with.

He tells me that the highest incidence of snacking is among children from 6 to 12.But there is strong growth among young working women from 18 to 29 and this is most evident in the morning. The 30 to 40 people don't snack a lot. But the above 50s, it seems are gathering force as snackers. The latter are also include chocolate among their snack list. Chocolate is growing in strength amongst them.

Youth(13-19) are still the biggest purchasers of chocolate. But, explains the manager, they seem to be drifting away from supermarkets to mini marts and convenience stores, which are closer to their homes,schools and their hang-out areas.

Youth are too impatient to shop at hypermarkets. They prefer smaller and more elegant environments or just super convenience. He suggests that category management and planograms may need to be reconsidered to capitalise on these trends. This is already evident, of recent, in some supermarkets.

If a snack, like chocolate, is going to replace meal, or become the fourth meal, the health aspects of chocolate really need to be emphasised. Last week I received a letter from the head teacher of my son's school urging me to ensure that his snack box contained "healthy foods, like rice, vegetables, fruit. Chocolates, sweets... are discouraged." If she wasn't a great teacher I would have promptly yanked my son out of that school. I mean we surely don't want to bring up our children on wild, dangerous, erroneous perceptions, do we? My point is that the chocolate health message simply isn't being propagated. This could be of disadvantage in time.

I sent the teacher as much literature as I could gather on the nutritional and health values of chocolate. I also took to filling my homemade chocolate with fruit bits to include in my son's snack box. So far there has been a kind of a truce.