Now that the next big thing has finally grown up, healthy eating — and better-for-you (B.F.Y.) snacks — have a best-selling story that wants to be told.

In the United States, organic food sales reached critical mass by topping $50 billion recently, more than double what they were in 2010. And on a worldwide stage, the ever-expanding healthy snacks market is expected to approach $33 billion by 2025, rising at a robust 5.2% compound annual growth rate, according to a recent Grand View Research report.

And it’s not just the numbers spinning that yarn. Consumers are looking for an interesting story behind the food itself. In fact, Innova Market Insights’ top trends for 2020 reported 56% of global consumers want to hear the story behind a brand’s benefits.

As a result, B.F.Y. products are prompting a transformation in snack manufacturing processes ranging from ingredient sourcing to advancements in technology for new products. Often these involve adapting existing technology to new formulas for more exotic ingredients, according to Baking & Snack’s snack processing report in its February issue.

However, as the B.F.Y. category morphs into using more diverse and more expensive ingredients, it often affects companies from a financial perspective. Co-manufacturers and conventional snack producers have had to adapt to the B.F.Y. megatrend by shifting the way they operate with more flexible ways to produce these snacks and new ways of prepping, baking and sometimes even frying them.

SNAXPO20, to be held March 22-24 in Charlotte, N.C., will be the stage that features all that new technology. In the past, companies touted the nutritional attributes of their baked snacks, which, unfortunately, tasted like cardboard.

“That tastes healthy!” was not a good thing. Thankfully, much of that’s changed.