November 3 2025 – Globally, consumers are increasingly valuing snacks that align with their health and wellness goals. Demand for plant-based options to address these preferences continues to grow. However, formulators also face challenges with balancing nutrition with shelf-life, texture, or sensory appeal. Across formats, hydrocolloids play an essential role as stabilizers, gelling agents, and texture enhancers. Innova’s report, “Balancing Nutrition & Shelf-Life: Hydrocolloids for Crunchier, Creamier Plant-Based Snacks,” explores these challenges and innovation opportunities in the global food and beverage market.
Textures of Plant-Based Protein Bars
When it comes to the texture of plant-based snack bars, balancing protein and nutrition requirements, with their flavor and texture implications, and shelf life can be incredibly difficult for formulators. To produce protein bars, manufacturers have traditionally used a corn syrup blend and film-forming hydrocolloids that bind extruded proteins or cereal crisps together. Gelatin can also be used as a binder, but for plant-based products, manufacturers are transitioning to other alternatives like low-acyl gellan gum or carrageenan. These hydrocolloids fulfil a crucial role as binding agents, but they also contribute to a pleasant chewy texture. They also lower the stickiness of the product by absorbing and trapping water, emphasizing another benefit for brands to consider in their formulation of plant-based bars. This impact on water enhances consumers’ eating experience, as it is easier to remove the product from its packaging.
Clean Label Trends
New nutritional offerings are available to consumers seeking low carb diets. Although many snack bars rely on corn syrup bases, new products are incorporating allulose, inulin, and other non-digestible fibers to lower carbohydrate content. Acacia gum is another ingredient that brands are incorporating into products that highlight the clean label trend, as the multifunctional ingredient can be used to reduce sugar. It also contributes to fiber content, as a soluble fiber, and aids in moisture migration between layers of a bar.
Fig-based and fruit-paste bars are some of the leading clean label products. For these products, brands can find opportunities in using gum acacia or citrus fiber to control moisture and prolong texture through a product’s shelf life. Citrus fiber can also be used to reduce stickiness, like gellan gum and carrageenan, to improve the eating experience for consumers.
Achieving Dairy-Free Creaminess
Dairy-free, frozen dessert innovations are also propelling the plant-based category of the global food and beverage market. When non-dairy frozen treats were first introduced, they were more icy than creamy. However, today’s brands are blending fats and more protein, combining ingredients that mimic dairy and stabilizers. Currently, common bases in plant-based offerings typically include almond, cashew, coconut, or macadamia, merged with plant-based or fermentation-based proteins.
Plant proteins differ from dairy proteins in shape, but they also come with residual starch and flavor, in many cases. Flavor can be difficult to overcome, resulting in the need to combine protein types, such as soy or pea, to help smooth out flavor issues from each individual protein. Yet even with this approach, formulators face difficulties with flavor and mouthfeel. Therefore, hydrocolloid selection is a vital element of frozen dairy products. For frozen plant-based products, brands can incorporate a suspending hydrocolloid like xanthan gum. It works synergistically with other hydrocolloids, which not only helps with even distribution of proteins during processing, but also controls ice crystal formation and melt after processing. Additionally, it positively impacts mouthfeel, and this can be influential in consumer acceptance of plant-based products.
Alternative Chips with a Crunch
Global consumers are increasingly seeking healthier alternatives to potato and tortilla chips. However, protein-rich alternatives, made from ingredients like chickpeas and lentils, come with technical hurdles. Plant-based proteins can be dense, and starches are necessary to help achieve the desired, crunchier textures. Therefore, potato starches, as used in traditional potato chips, are often used for the correct consistency. Brands can also turn to tapioca starch or a blend of the two, in combination with a protein, to help trap air and moisture for crispiness and provide a satisfying crunch.
How Can Brands Approach Creamy Dips?
Traditional dips, often made with a sour cream base, depend on dairy proteins for structure. Plant-based offerings can rarely mimic this texture, due to insufficient protein content. As a result, Innova’s research indicates that brands can increasingly turn to hydrocolloids, such as tapioca starch, to achieve accurate viscosity and mouthfeel. Xanthan gum with a galactomannan (complex carbohydrate) can also be used to add structure.
What’s Next for Plant-Bases Snacks?
The plant-based snack trend reflects the larger consumer movement towards healthier and sustainable eating habits. Beyond flavor, global consumers seek nutritious, clean label, and satisfying offerings. Hydrocolloids are fundamental to this shift, and the brands that leverage these ingredients, along with protein and fiber innovations, will lead future innovations in the global food and beverage market.
This article is based on Innova’s Balancing Nutrition & Shelf Life: Hydrocolloids for Crunchier, Creamier Plant-Based Snacks report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to find out more.