Potato chips and corn chips the snack foods of choice for parents during lockdown
New snack food and confectionery data from Roy Morgan shows that potato chips and corn chips are the favoured snack foods for parents with children under eighteen, with most mums and dads purchasing them every two to four weeks.
The data shows that potato chips and corn chips are the most popular snack of parents as a group. Next comes savoury biscuits and crackers, chocolate blocks, chocolate bars, and lollies and sweets.
However, there is a salty/sweet preference split depending on the age of the children in the family. The group with the highest proportion of potato chip and corn chip buyers was parents with children aged 12-17, with 64% purchasing these snacks in an average four weeks and 27% buying these more than three times a week. This group also led the savoury biscuits and crackers category (51%).
Sweeter snacks are different. Chocolate blocks are most frequently bought by parents of children aged 6-11 (43%), as are chocolate bars (39%). Parents of children aged 0-5 led the lollies and sweets category (34%).
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the COVID-19 lockdown has likely led to a few extra snack food items slipping into supermarket trolleys in recent weeks
“Resisting snack foods at the supermarket is difficult enough at the best of times, but given that many children have been accompanying parents during recent shopping trips, it’s likely households are well-stocked with snacks.
“A higher proportion of parents purchase snack food compared with the Australian population, but as we see, the proportions differ depending on the age of the children. Parents of teenagers are the largest chip and biscuit buyers, parents of primary school-aged children top both categories of chocolate snacks, and parents of toddlers head for the lollies aisle,” Ms. Levine said.
The snack food consumption data is taken from Roy Morgan Single Source, the nation’s most comprehensive survey, compiled by in-depth interviews with over 1,000 Australians each week.
Proportion of Australian parents who purchase snacks and confectionery
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, October 2019 – March 2020, n = 5,640. Base: Australians 14+ who purchase snack food in an average four weeks.
View our range of Snacks Related Profiles.
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
