Portion-controlled food products, introduced by Kraft last year with its 100-calorie Snack Packs of Oreos, Chips Ahoy and Nabisco crackers, are taking off in a big way in other food categories by
marketers looking to take advantage of weight-conscious consumers. The category didn't exist four years ago. But 29 such 100-calorie prepackaged products were introduced over the past three years--18
last year, says Tom Vierhile, executive editor of Datamonitor's ProductScan Online. The group includes cookies, crackers, chips, popcorn, and yogurt. Even Coca-Cola has recently plopped 100-calorie
labels on 8-oz. mini-cans of several soft drinks. Speculation is mixed as to why the "100-calorie" seems to be the magic number. "This is all about guilt," Vierhile says. "These individual pack sizes
reduce the amount of guilt that a consumer feels for snacking." But Laurie Guzzinati, a Kraft spokeswoman, had a different point of view. "As people count calories, the number 100 is very easy to
calculate in the mix," she says.
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