Cookie and Cracker Manufacturers NAICS 311821

Sep 20, 2025 - Shoppers Cutting Back

• Consumers across all income levels are cutting back on discretionary purchases, leading to weaker snack and adult-beverage sales, the interim CEO of Kroger Ron Sargent told The Wall Street Journal in September. Sargent said the pullback on spending is most pronounced among low- and middle-income households, with those consumers using more coupons, making smaller and more frequent trips to the store, and buying more private-label products. To keep its prices low, Kroger is absorbing higher costs even as wholesale food prices, including for cookies and crackers, continue to rise, Sargent told WSJ. In related news, spending growth by Hispanic households, which account for 15% of consumer spending, has stalled, according to a new report titled The State of Hispanic Spending. The report’s verified purchase data highlight growing financial caution among Hispanic consumers, driven by ongoing economic pressures and political uncertainty.
• Consumers looking to reduce their sugar intake are checking labels for natural sweeteners that don’t skimp on taste or texture, Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery (SF&WB) reports. So called “clean-label” sweeteners include monk fruit, stevia, and organic date syrup made from concentrated date juice. Organic date syrup contains fiber, natural sugars (such as glucose and fructose), vitamins, and minerals and can substitute for sugar in cookies, cakes, muffins, and bread with sweetness and moisture-retaining properties, according to SF&WB. Tagatose – a naturally occurring sugar found in various foods – is 90% as sweet as sucrose while containing 60% fewer calories. In addition, tagatose has a low glycemic index (GI of 3), a ketogenic certification, and is non-GMO Project Verified. A bulking sweetener, tagatose delivers both sweetness and textural properties. Cookie and cracker manufacturers that innovate to cut sugar without sacrificing taste and texture are likely to gain new customers.

• A rule proposed in the waning days of the Biden administration would require food manufacturers to display new labels on the front of packages flagging key nutrition information on salt, added sugar, and saturated fat, The Wall Street Journal reports. The rule proposed by the Food and Drug Administration in January is meant to help US consumers make healthier dietary choices. The new labels, dubbed a “nutrition info box,” would appear on the front of packages, according to WSJ. The agency currently requires most packaged foods to display a nutritional label, usually on the back or side of the box. The FDA said it would accept public comments on its proposal until May 16. If the rule is finalized, food manufacturers would be required to add the new labels to most packaged food products three to four years after it takes effect.
• Producer prices for cookie and cracker manufacturers rose 3.6% in August compared to a year ago, after posting a previous flat August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At retail, cookie prices rose 3.5% year over year in August but fell 1% from July, while cracker prices rose 0.8% YoY and 0.4% versus July, according to the August Consumer Price Index report from the Labor Department. Employment by cookie and cracker manufacturers shrank 2.9% YoY in July, while average industry wages rose 3% over the same period to a new high of $23.13 per hour, BLS data show.