SNACKS. Throughout human history, the frequency and content of meals has varied. From ancient times, light foods or leftovers were consumed between meals. These tended to be natural, sweet foods that required little or no preparation, such as grapes, figs, or apples. In nineteenth-century America, interest in snack foods shifted from natural foods to prepared commercial foods, with a high salt and sugar content. It is these processed foods that are considered snack foods in the early twenty-first century.

Salty Snacks

America's first commercial snack foods were peanuts and popcorn, which were cheap, tasty, filling, and eminently portable. Peanut and popcorn vendors sold their products on the streets, circuses, and fairs, and later at sporting events. One successful peanut vendor was Amedeo Obici, an Italian-born immigrant living in Wilkes-Barre,...