Continuous snacking: US kids eat 4.1 snacks a day, while teens eat 3.8 snacks a day, says NPD Group

NPD’s SnackTrack data, which tracks snacking occasions in- and away-from-home, also reveals that 90% of school snacks are brought from home.

For 6 to12 year-olds - an age where parents often choose the foods their children eat - fresh fruit, fruit cups/applesauce, potato chips, meal kits, and yogurt are the top school snacks.

Teens, meanwhile - who tend to make their own food choices - snack on gum, fresh fruit, potato chips, chocolate bars/candy bars, and granola bars at school. 

The bottom line is that we don’t want to prepare foods more often​

For both age groups, sandwiches are still the top school lunch entrée and are included in two-thirds of school brown bag lunches, according to NPD Group.

 “Snack foods are increasingly becoming a part of the lunch bag carried by children to school, just like snack foods are becoming part of main meals for all of us​,” said NPD chief industry analyst Harry Balzer.

 “The bottom line is that we don’t want to prepare foods more often. We don’t even want to make more sandwiches for our kid’s lunch bag, even though sandwiches are still the number one lunch bag item carried by a kid. ​

“Instead we are loading the kids’ lunch bag with easy-to-prepare snack products to be eaten at lunchtime.”​

Click here​ to read more about what National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data tells us about snacking habits in America.