Snacking has become a hot topic, both nutritionally and economically. The value of the UK snack market demonstrates that consumers enjoy their snacks – but at what cost to our children? Is there a place for snacks in the diets of our under-18s, and how can we maximise these snacking opportunities for the benefit of their health? And there are, of course, also many pitfalls when it comes to snacking. Aliya Porter, RNutr, unpacks these important questions.

In 2025, the British Nutrition Foundation ran the first Snack-tember campaign – a month dedicated to supporting children at school, at home and in other settings to snack more healthily and sustainably. The stated aims in 2026 are “to help children and young people choose and make snacks that have: more vegetables and fruit, more wholegrains, beans and pulses [and] less saturated fat, salt and sugars”.

This article explores the role of snacks in a child’s diet and some of the opportunities snacks provide, as well as some of the pitfalls.

Children have smaller stomachs, yet they need proportionately more energy than adults, particularly when they are younger. Having snacks alongside meals can therefore be beneficial in helping children meet their nutritional requirements. Table 1 shows the energy requirements for a range of ages, based on moderately active people who are a healthy weight.

Table 1: Estimated Average Requirements for energy based on age (UK)

In the UK, it is recommended that children under one year do not have snacks, as adequate nutrition comes from milk (breast milk or infant formula) and solid food at meal times. However, the Infant Feeding Survey found that 14% of respondents said their baby under one had crisps and corn snacks every day, suggesting this recommendation is not being followed by everyone.

From one year of age, children are advised to have up to two snacks a day, and in 2018, Public Health England (PHE) launched a campaign advising that children’s snacks should be under 100 calories each.

Prior to the launch of the 100-calorie campaign, PHE analysed data from the 2013–16 National Diet and Nutrition Survey and found that 73.8% of the sugar intake from snacks came from food, with the remainder from drinks. These foods contributed to 36.4% of the sugars in the whole diet. PHE also highlighted the calorie content of certain common snack foods:

• An ice cream contains around 175 calories
• A packet of crisps contains around 190 calories
• A chocolate bar contains around 200 calories
• A pastry contains around 270 calories

A survey of more than 2500 schoolchildren revealed that the snacks 10–13-year-olds eat most often are crisps (41%), fresh fruit (36%), biscuits/cookies (32%), chocolate (32%) and sweets (28%). Only 33% said it was easy to choose a healthier snack from a shop. When asked why, 28% said that unhealthy foods look nicer, 17% said that it’s hard to find the healthier options, 10% said that it’s hard to work out what is healthy, and a further 10% said that healthy foods are expensive.

UK data on the positive contribution snacks have on nutrient intake for children are limited. However, an international scoping review of 21 studies found that snacks contributed 231–565 kcal, up to a third of carbohydrate, a quarter of fat intake and a fifth of protein intake. In terms of micronutrients, they provided up to a third of vitamin C, a quarter of vitamin E, potassium and magnesium intake, and a fifth of calcium, folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron and sodium intakes.

While the PHE campaign launch focused on calories and sugar, snacks can provide a range of different nutrients to children, including fibre, vitamins and minerals. Focussing too heavily on calories can mean overlooking the importance of other nutrients and can add to concerns about disordered eating.

According to the latest NDNS data, fibre intakes in children (like those in adults) are below recommendations, with daily intakes recorded as 12.5g for those aged 18 months to three years, 14.5g for four to 10 years and 15.4g for 11 to 18 years. Recommendations are 15g per day for two to five-year-olds, 20g per day for five- to 11-year-olds and 25g per day for 11- to 16-year-olds. Snacks can provide a helpful opportunity to increase fibre intake, as shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Fibre content of a variety of snack options

With the reduction in urinary iodine levels shown in the NDNS data between 2013 and 2023, and insufficient population-level status in girls aged 11–18, snacks provide a useful opportunity to add further dairy products or fortified plant alternatives to increase iodine intake (and calcium, B12 and B2 intakes).

There is opportunity to increase all the micronutrient intakes through snacks, but they are too many to interrogate on this level here.

Much emphasis has been put on snacks that are high in fat, salt and sugar. Choosing these is a common pitfall, and such foods do not often provide the fibre or micronutrients that are lacking in children’s diets. However, there are other pitfalls to consider too. This article will focus on four, although this is not an exhaustive list.

1. Timing

There has been much focus on chrononutrition, and other articles in the NHD archive delve further into the evidence; however, when timing is considered for children, there are several factors, including whether a snack will make them less hungry for their next meal and therefore increase fussiness, considerations around dental health and the need to avoid grazing. General recommendations are to have a snack between breakfast and lunch, and another between lunch and dinner. One study in animals and humans looked at the impact of grazing on growth and showed a positive association, which is worth further investigation.

Consuming a snack that is too large for the child’s needs can lead to unnecessary weight gain, but, as discussed above, it can also have an impact on meals later in the day. While the PHE campaign focused on calories, it is recommended that snacks are nutrient-dense and age-appropriate in terms of size. Portion sizes on commercial products don’t vary according to age, so parents are left to guess, and in many cases deal with children complaining about not being given the full packet.

Building on timing and quantity, it is important that children learn their own hunger and fullness cues. Having set snack times and mealtimes can help with this and with avoiding grazing. Commercial snack sizes or always being told to finish the snack can override these cues. Relearning hunger and fullness cues later on can be challenging, especially when teenagers are surrounded by options to spend their money on, so working on this in the early years is essential.

The United Kingdom snacks market reached a value of 55.02 billion US dollars in 2025. The latest Infant Feeding Survey report states, “nearly three-quarters (74%) of babies had baby snacks bought from a shop at least weekly, 20% had them every day”. It is a huge business, and with many snacks individually wrapped in plastic and requiring high levels of processing in production, a pitfall that needs highlighting is sustainability. There is an opportunity to have a more sustainable approach to snacking by using minimally processed snack items, locally sourced and in-season ingredients.

Snacking is a helpful part of a child’s diet if it is navigated well. With so many options available that are not nutrient-dense, children often miss out on the positives of snacking. Parameters are needed and support for parents, particularly around convenience, would be beneficial, as would working with the food industry to create affordable options that are more nutrient-dense, less processed and more sustainable.