More Than a Craving - Snacking Behavior Report

How people really choose their everyday snacks

Snacking gets described with a few familiar pictures: chips at 2am, stress eating, a new product going viral on TikTok. We asked 300 consumers across six Indonesian cities what they actually do, and most of those pictures don’t hold up.

More Than a Craving is Deka Insight’s monthly report on snacking. It looks at when people snack, why, which flavours they pick, what “healthy” means to them, and where they first hear about new products.

Five key findings

1. Late-night snacking is the wrong picture. Only 0.7% (2 of 300 people) said late night is when they snack most. Midday leads at 36%.
2. People don’t snack when things fall apart. The top reason is a mood boost (49.7%). Right before snacking, most people felt relaxed (36.3%), happy (23.7%) or energised (21.3%). Only 3.3% felt stressed.
3. What people say they like isn’t what they eat. Sweet and savoury score almost the same as liked flavours (71.3% vs. 66.7%). But for the last snack people actually ate, sweet won 62% to 33%, and chocolate alone (42.3%) beat all savoury flavours combined.
4. Almost everyone wants healthier snacks. 79.7% prefer snacks that support a healthy lifestyle. The main things stopping them are on the seller’s side: price, taste, range and availability.
5. New snacks are found on the shelf, not just the feed. 77.3% hear about new snacks in store. All social and digital channels together reach 55.0%.

About the research

• Quantitative survey, n = 300 respondents
• Cities: Jabodetabek, Bandung, Surabaya, Medan, Semarang, Makassar
• Male and female respondents in four age groups (up to age 35), SES A–C
• Fieldwork: June 2026

Download the full report for the complete charts, flavour breakdowns, health barriers, and what this means for snack brands’ portfolios and go-to-market plans.