The number of vegans has increased rapidly due to religious and ethical beliefs, environmental concerns, health, etc. Also, as interest in healthy and safe food increases, the demand for organic products or nutrition-enhanced products is increasing. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the selection attributes and purchasing behavior for protein-fortified and vegan snacks. It is anticipated that the results would find use as basic data for developing protein-fortified snacks for vegans that can meet consumer needs and derive marketing strategies. A survey was conducted on 140 consumers. According to the analysis of their purchase behavior, the number of people who had purchased high-protein snacks and vegan snacks was higher than those who did not have prior experience. The reasons for the purchase of protein fortified snacks included ‘meal replacement’ at ‘offline-convenient store/supermarket’. Vegan snacks were purchased for ‘ethical beliefs, health, environment’ at ‘offline-vegan restaurant, bakery’. Both snacks showed above-normal preferences. However, it is necessary to improve taste and flavor when developing these products as these were the factors that negatively impacted the preferences. The attributes were factorized into the ‘showing off factor’, ‘sensory factor’, ‘credence factor’, and ‘functional factor’ and the ‘sensory factor’ was considered the most important.

This study was conducted to evaluate children’s purchase behavior (frequency of snack consumption and purchase) and preference for high protein snack products developed for weight control and nutritional balance. A total of 80 elementary school students (from the 3rd to 6th graders) in the Gyeonggi-do learning center were participated and 76 were used for the analysis. The most common response for liking snacks was taste (71.4%), and the most preferred types of snacks were chips (42.1%) and puff snacks (34.2%). The highest frequency of snack ingestion was 1-3 times per week (48; 63.2%), and the main purchasers were parents (65.8%). Cheese, corn and chili flavors were more preferred than the control, while yogurt taste was slightly less preferred than the control. The results of this study showed the possibility of commercialization of new protein snacks according to children’s seasoning preference and provide the insights into the snack preferences of children as main consumers.