It always makes the most of the visuals. Whether hitting the humorous angle with gross food memes or tempting the audience with the perfect plating, it is some of the most visceral yet safe-for-work imagery we can stumble across on the internet. The most recent craze to fall into this category focuses on our snacks, and it is equally anxiety-inducing as it is a mesmerizing form of content.
Snack tins, or snack boxes, are the art of fitting anything you might be craving during the tiring wait between lunch and dinner into an aesthetically pleasing confined space. “The goal [is] to fit as much variety into the limited expanse—with an extra helping of whimsy,” explained a Vogue profile on the trend. “Think of it like your own curated, portable charcuterie board.”
The most famous advocate of the snack tin is @thenakedlight, whose TikTok bio claims she is a proponent of “a new philosophy of snacking.” The typical contents of one of her tins consist of a few nuts, some dried fruit, and a square of dark chocolate or a small cookie. This restrained balance of sugar and healthy fats is not just something to stop the hunger pangs; it is also an entire mindset. “Snack tin is not just a container. It is a tiny, personal, ritual object,” she claims in one video. This isn’t just about planning for when you’re hungry, but a small performance about satiating that hunger in a way that satisfies you more than filling you up.
The snack tin trend is a direct consequence of how food is made palatable for social media. The ‘What I Eat in a Day’ phenomenon, in which influencers vlog their day through everything they claim to eat and drink, has popularized the idea of a diet as a personal branding exercise. It could be something that people relate to, or see as something aspirational to try to replicate in their own lives. How they eat is filtered through how others may judge them for it, creating the incentive to make their habits attractive.
“Snack plates” are also a predecessor of the snack tin. They offer a way for creators to present their stylish taste in groceries all in one aesthetically pleasing place. They might inspire their audience to up their game the next time they are feeling peckish, or at the very least, demonstrate the kind of elevated taste that might make them feel a little inadequate. “People out there eating Fragrantica notes,” quipped one commenter when a person shared a plate that featured a cinnamon stick in the middle of it.
These trends are representative of an increasing concern with the cultural clout of what we eat and drink. In their investigation into the “status economy”—where consumers use all of their purchases as a way to show their superior taste—lifestyle brand Highsnobiety found that 71% of survey respondents considered the food and drink they consume to be “tools of self-expression.” In contrast, only 6% believed that food was solely about “fuel and function.” Their conclusion was that “cultural credibility is just as likely to be signaled through what’s in your fridge as it is by the clothes you wear.”
Speaking of clothing, food has become a popular inspiration for fashion in recent times, with CNN reporting last year that pantry staples have been “transformed into symbols of luxury” through the likes of $78 sardine pattern t-shirts and $2,300 Hellman’s Mayonnaise purses. With food becoming so aestheticized that people spend good money to show it off, it is no wonder that many are thinking harder about the way they satisfy their cravings.
The idea of carrying snacks around in a personalized tin is a clear extension of this desire to meld food and fashion. It is the equivalent of a kid wanting a cool school lunchbox, except for adults who are concerned about looking chic and managing their appetite. Instead of the most highly processed delicacies being the covetable items inside it, it is the mindful combination of protein, fiber, and possibly half of a brand-name sweet treat that is currently enjoying a viral moment. It is a public broadcast that this is a stylish person who totally has their life together.
Anastasia, the influencer behind The N*ked Light, insists that her snack tin protocol “helps people make better choices, not only around food.” She claims that the practice can help regulate the nervous system, reduce “compulsive eating,” and generally make people more intentional and thoughtful in how they live their lives.
Perhaps there is an element of truth to this for anybody who is capable of packing food for themselves unencumbered by cultural expectations around nutrition, dieting, and what we should be eating to impress other people. However, the reality is that most of those who carry around a snack tin do it because of these expectations. It is a demonstration of good taste and self-control, which just so happens to look great as a TikTok thumbnail or an Instagram post. This nourishes an individual’s aesthetic more than it does their body. What about the single moms who don’t have time to pack their tins? Or people struggling financially who don’t want to spend extra money on snacks? Are they not making “better choices” about food?
There is something hypnotizing about watching the construction of a snack that is completely divorced from how most people eat. While the encouragement to be more intentional with our food can be positive, there comes a point where it is less about putting thought into proper nourishment and more about showing off. Anyone who loves food knows that some of the most satisfying bites are kind of ugly.
