Cargill’s EMEA R&D Food and Beverage Director, Imen Znaien, explores how European snack innovation is shifting from indulgence-led development to highly technical, system-wide reformulation
Please introduce yourself and your role at Cargill.
I’m Imen Znaien, and I lead the R&D Food & Beverage Category at Cargill in Europe, where I work at the intersection of consumer insight, customer needs and ingredient innovation. My role focuses on providing solutions to manufacturers that is relevant for their category anticipating their need and where demand is heading – from nutritious-forward reformulation to cost reduction-driven product design – and translating those shifts into practical, scalable ingredient solutions.
How has the innovation landscape in snacks evolved over the past five to ten years?
Over the past years, I’ve seen the European snack market move from being primarily indulgence-driven to being shaped by regulatory pressure and more intentional consumer behaviour. Taste still leads, but it no longer stands alone. Nutrient profiling systems such as Nutri-Score, HFSS regulation in the UK, and front-of-pack transparency have fundamentally changed how snacks are developed and positioned.
Five to ten years ago, reformulation was often reactive. Today, it is strategic. Manufacturers are not simply launching new flavours; they are redesigning entire recipes to reduce sugar, salt and saturated fat while maintaining texture, crunch and flavour delivery. That has shifted innovation upstream, into ingredient systems and full-recipe optimisation.
At the same time, label friendly expectations have intensified across Europe. Consumers increasingly scrutinise ingredient lists and expect products to feel natural, minimally processed and responsibly sourced. Innovation is therefore no longer about adding functionality – it is about embedding functionality within simpler, more recognisable formulations.
The result is a category that is far more technically demanding than it was a decade ago. The brief now is clear: deliver taste, meet nutrients requirement, maintain shelf stability and demonstrate sustainability – all within tight cost parameters.
What are the biggest technical challenges in supporting reduced-sugar, cleaner-label or plant-based snack development?
The biggest challenge is that European reformulation is rarely about one element in isolation. Sugar reduction, salt reduction and fat optimisation often need to happen simultaneously to meet nutrient profiling criteria.
Sugar is a good example. In bar applications, it provides sweetness, but it also delivers bulk, influences browning and contributes to water activity and texture. Removing it affects structure and shelf life. Simply replacing sweetness does not restore functionality. Fibre-based bulking solutions or alternative syrups can help, but the matrix must be recalibrated.
Label friendly reformulation is equally complex. Ingredients such as emulsifiers and stabilisers perform critical structural roles, even if they are not always well perceived by consumers. In bread systems, for example, emulsifiers can improve volume and extend softness. Replacing them requires a careful combination of lecithins, enzymes and process adjustments rather than a simple one-to-one swap.
Plant-based protein adds another layer of technical difficulty. Higher protein inclusion can create dense textures or dryness, particularly in baked or extruded formats. Off-notes must be masked, and moisture management becomes critical to maintain bite over shelf life. Delivering protein in a way that supports improved nutritional scoring without compromising sensory quality remains one of the most demanding formulation challenges in snacks today.
