Halloween trick-or-treating could be less sugary than usual this year as consumers look for healthier snacks and candy companies such as Hershey, opens new tab, the United States’ biggest chocolate-maker, adapt their product offerings.
Fuelled by GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and a growing focus on health, eating habits are changing, leading the makers of sweet and salty snacks to adjust their portfolios to offer more protein, smaller-sized products and fewer calories.
Hershey’s vice president for demand creation, strategy and innovation, Dan Mohnshine, told Reuters, “Certainly, the Lesser Evil brand and our salty snacks brands broadly, Skinny Pop and Pirate’s Booty, having a greater presence in Halloween is in response to the ‘Healthy Eating’ dynamic.”
However, he said chocolate will still be the Halloween snack of choice.
He said, “When it comes to GLP-1s, we’ve seen pretty strong resilience in the chocolate category here in the US.”
Without giving precise figures, he said early-season sales of snack-size bags of chocolates and sweets had risen in double-digits versus a year ago.
Sugar-free versions, sweetened with sugar alcohols rather than conventional sugar, are also a growth area.
US dollar sales in Hershey’s Zero Sugar candy, mint and gum business grew around 4.3 times from 2020 through 2025, Mohnshine said.
AI-Driven Innovation And The ‘Trunk Or Treat’ Trend
According to Hershey’s ‘Unwrapping Halloween’ report, published in partnership with data intelligence firm Morning Consult this month, three of the five biggest-selling US candies at Halloween are Hershey’s products and two-thirds of parents have already bought Halloween treats in the summer.
Further research from the National Confectioners Association found that in 2024, Americans spent $7.4 billion on treats, accounting for 18% of all confectionery retail sales that year.
Given the amount at stake, Hershey is using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up product development.
Mohnshine said, “We’ve removed about three months from the typical timeframe it takes to go from consumer insight to approved concept.
“As a result, our innovation pipeline over the last nine months has expanded 75%.”
AI also identifies “trunk-or-treat” parties as a growing trend.
They began in Covid lockdowns and are still favoured by communities and families who gather with their cars to exchange treats.
Mohnshine is expecting them to be more popular than ever this year and says the Reese’s maker is at the ready with its expanded range of small, individually wrapped pieces that he said are “the key to remaining relevant.”
