Data shows that in 2024, China's corn chip market reached 7.6 billion yuan with an annual growth rate exceeding 100%, while traditional high-oil potato chips saw their market share decline by over 5 percentage points for two consecutive years. In this shift, local brand Food Lab stood out, selling 80 million bags of corn chips and becoming a sought-after partner for distributors, revealing the truth about product selection in the new snack era.

Corn chips have seen rapid growth over the past three years. Food Lab sells 80 million bags.

"From the beginning of the year to now, we've restocked Food Lab corn chips six times, and each time the stock was snapped up by retail terminals within three days of arrival," said Mr. Wang, a distributor from Jiangsu, pointing at the warehouse's inbound and outbound records. This "supply falling short of demand" scenario has become the norm in Food Lab's omnichannel layout.

Online, the Douyin channel tops the charts for "bestseller, popularity,好评, and repurchase," while the Tmall flagship store sells over 1.2 million bags per month. The "Thick Cheese Corn Chips" topped its category within six months of launch. Offline, the brand has deep partnerships with leading retailers like Hema and 7-ELEVEN, covering over 100,000 retail terminals. It topped the bestseller list on Walmart within a week of launch, spanning from large supermarkets to community convenience stores, fully connecting consumption scenarios and achieving omnichannel penetration.

Image source: Photo taken at a Snacks Busy offline store display.

As of the third quarter of 2025, cumulative sales of Food Lab corn chips exceeded 80 million bags, ranking first in national sales for three consecutive years. This means that one in every ten Chinese snack consumers has purchased the product.

Behind distributors' rush to stock the product are dual drivers of policy and consumption.

Since the national "Weight Management Year" initiative, demand for healthy snacks has been fully activated. Terminal research shows that 80% of consumers actively check nutrition labels before buying snacks. Traditional potato chips, with 25-30 grams of oil per 100 grams, are seen as "high burden," which clashes with this consumer pain point.

Corn chips contain only 5 grams of fat per 100 grams and, through "zero-oil baking," retain the original corn flavor, aligning with policy direction and precisely addressing consumers' core demand for "both delicious and healthy."

In September, Food Lab, in collaboration with Fudan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and other institutions, launched the "Corn Chips Crazy 1-for-3" public welfare activity, bringing tasty and healthy corn chips to campuses. It attracted hundreds of thousands of college students, sparking a corn chip wave. Many students said the chips taste great and are healthier than potato chips, and they are willing to repurchase regularly.

OEM snacks face quality crisis; distributors should look at brand strength to avoid pitfalls.

The booming snack market has made "OEM" a "quick entry ticket" for many players—no need to build factories or quality control systems; just find a contract manufacturer and slap on a label. However, such OEM brands typically have three problems: unstable raw materials, lack of quality control, and unreliable supply.

This light model has become more crowded after the corn chip market exploded, with many "followers" adopting the "OEM" model. According to incomplete industry statistics, since the second half of 2024, over 40% of OEM corn chip brands have exited the market due to quality complaints or supply shortages. This serves as a warning to distributors: when choosing a partner brand, don't just look at short-term popularity; examine the brand's "hard strength."

Food Lab insists on building a full-chain value brand from planting, production, to sales.

Food Lab's explosive growth is not accidental; it stems from deep investment in patented technology and the entire industry chain.

As a tech-driven enterprise, Food Lab holds 19 food patent certificates and has developed four pioneering food health technologies: "high-protein light crispy," "high-fiber liquid seasoning," "zero-oil air baking," and "third-generation corn rough extraction." It has also established deep cooperation with professional institutions like Huazhong Agricultural University to co-create professional food technology. Its core technological achievements have won the "First Prize in China Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition," empowering products with technology, disrupting the traditional snack field, and gaining recognition from CCTV.

Since its founding six years ago, Food Lab has focused on the corn snack category, deeply cultivating the upstream and downstream corn industry. It invested 80 million yuan to introduce Swiss technology and European/American process design, building a modern intelligent factory with a 100,000-class purification workshop and an annual production capacity of 3,000 tons.

Corn chips have entered a period of explosive growth; there is potential to replace potato chips in the future.

From the "high-oil cold reception" of potato chips to the "healthy explosion" of corn chips, the shift in the snack industry is irreversible. The latest data from Yubozhiye provides reassurance to distributors: the corn chip market is expected to directly exceed 16 billion yuan by 2028, and in the next three years, the first 10-billion-yuan local brand may emerge. This proves that corn chips are not a fleeting trend; distributors can confidently ride the growth train of the 10-billion-yuan market and steadily share in the corn chip dividend.