The change is exhibiting up in what customers purchase, how usually they search comfort and the sorts of merchandise firms are constructing for the moments between breakfast, lunch and dinner.
ET On-lineMoreover, it’s making a market that stretches properly past chips and biscuits. Protein-rich snacks, makhana, flavoured nuts, yoghurt, ready-to-eat meals and café merchandise are discovering their approach into the Indian meals basket, whereas quick-commerce platforms are making them obtainable inside minutes.
Additionally Learn: India at cusp of ‘snacking renaissance’; L Catterton bets on healthy snacking, branded foods
A mixture of rising incomes, time-poor life, smaller households, well being consciousness and simpler entry to meals could also be contributing to this variation.
“So India isn’t consuming extra. It’s consuming otherwise, and paying extra to take action,” stated Mitali Nikore, Founder and Chief Economist, Nikore Associates.
The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24 exhibits drinks, refreshments and processed meals accounted for 9.84% of rural month-to-month per capita expenditure and 11.09% in city India, making it the biggest meals class. The class consists of packaged meals, non-alcoholic drinks and bought cooked meals, Nikore stated.
ET On-lineIts share of rural spending rose from 4.19% in 1999-2000. Cereals, in the meantime, fell from 22.2% of spending in 1999-2000 to 4.99% in 2023-24, as per family consumption information.
Common each day per-capita calorie consumption remained broadly secure in 2023-24 at 2,212 kcal in rural India, down from 2,233 kcal in 2022-23, and a couple of,240 kcal in city India, in contrast with 2,250 kcal a yr earlier, in keeping with the Family Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24, she added.
ET On-lineThese shifting expenditure patterns replicate a market the place comfort and occasion-based consuming now compete with conventional meals.
Time is turning into a meals forex
The shift in the direction of snacking can also be being pushed by the rising worth of comfort. As households grow to be extra time-constrained, meals that may be consumed with little preparation is turning into an more and more enticing proposition.
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Nikore ranks the drivers as “time first, earnings second, availability third”.
The Time Use Survey 2024 discovered that feminine contributors aged 15-59 spend 305 minutes a day on unpaid home work, in contrast with 86 minutes for males. Individually, an evaluation of NSO’s Time Use Survey 2019 information by Nikore, printed by the Observer Analysis Basis (ORF), discovered that meals preparation accounted for about 56% of girls’s common time spent on unpaid work.
“Snacking is what a time-poor family buys again,” she stated.
That point strain helps clarify the attraction of ready-to-eat and between-meal codecs. A sandwich can fill the hole between conferences; a protein snack can observe a exercise; a ready-to-eat meal can substitute cooking when time is brief.
Fast-commerce platform Instamart information factors to the identical shift in school-going households, with lunchboxes turning into extra modular. Sandwiches, juices, yoghurt, dips and protein snacks are being mixed throughout breakfast, recess and after-school events, in keeping with Instamart’s Again-to-Faculty report 2026 shared with ET.
The snack market is getting larger
Market analysis agency IMARC estimates India’s snacks market at ₹50,590 crore in 2025 and expects it to cross ₹1.04 lakh crore by 2034, implying an 8.28% compound annual progress fee (CAGR).
ET On-lineThe Indian snack basket now stretches from chips and biscuits to protein bars, makhana, flavoured nuts, yoghurt, ready-to-eat meals, practical drinks and café merchandise.
One of many clearest areas of progress is in health-oriented merchandise.
Instamart information exhibits robust progress in a number of of those merchandise. Protein snacks grew roughly 300%, protein yoghurt round 280%, and protein milk and shakes 225%, as per Protein Tendencies 2026 information shared by the fast comm firm.
ET On-lineFarmley’s Wholesome Snacking Report 2026, primarily based on responses from greater than 6,000 customers throughout generations, professions and cities, discovered that 86% contemplate protein an vital issue when selecting snacks, whereas 61% choose snacks sweetened with pure components resembling dates or jaggery over refined sugar. Almost 32% stated they’re keen to pay a premium for protein-rich merchandise.
ET On-lineParminder Joshi, former Nestlé government and founder and CEO of FoodIntellé, estimates India’s wholesome snacks market is rising at almost 10% yearly, in contrast with round 6.5% globally.
Anand Ramanathan, Companion and Client Trade Chief at Deloitte India, places the expansion fee for the broader diet and functional-food class at 15–20% yearly, in contrast with round 10% for the general meals market.
Conventional components are additionally being recast by means of a well being lens. On Instamart, demand for soya chunks and sattu greater than doubled, whereas makhana, roasted chana, besan and peanut butter remained distinguished.
Customers are additionally paying nearer consideration to components. Ramanathan stated almost 74% learn ingredient or dietary data earlier than shopping for, whereas nearly 4 in 5 commonly verify ingredient labels.
The shift in the direction of health-oriented decisions can also be seen in drinks. On Instamart, wellness teas grew 26% year-on-year, led by Tulsi, inexperienced tea and blue pea tea, whereas kombucha emerged among the many fastest-growing tea developments.
Additionally Learn: Protein & clean labels priorities in snacking; quick commerce fuelling healthy snacking: Farmley report
But well being isn’t changing indulgence.
Ramanathan describes a “cut up basket”, the place customers proceed to purchase inexpensive and indulgent merchandise whereas including premium and health-focused choices.
Instamart information additionally factors to the coexistence of diet and indulgence. Ice cream demand peaks at 9 pm, with family-sized tubs main purchases and chocolate accounting for about one in 4 ice-cream orders.
That’s creating a number of demand swimming pools inside the identical market. A client should buy conventional namkeen for a night craving and protein-rich snacks for an additional event.
The result’s an increasing snack universe somewhat than a easy handover from conventional snacks to more healthy options.
When the snack turns into a meal
The boundaries between snacks and meals are additionally turning into much less inflexible.
Merchandise resembling sandwiches, wraps, yoghurt-based drinks, protein-rich meals and ready-to-eat meals can serve totally different functions relying on the event.
“The boundary between meals and snacks is turning into more and more blurred amongst youthful, digitally related customers,” Ramanathan stated.
A sandwich could be lunch at midday and a snack within the night. A yoghurt drink can accompany breakfast or grow to be a post-workout buy. A wrap can substitute for dinner when somebody is brief on time.
This offers meals firms a wider canvas.
As an alternative of designing merchandise solely for breakfast, lunch or snacking, manufacturers can construct round particular client wants: starvation, comfort, protein, indulgence, power or an on-the-go event.
That shift is especially vital for the new-age meals companies competing with established packaged-food manufacturers.
Fast commerce turns cravings into commerce
India’s quick-commerce market grew from roughly $0.3 billion in 2021 to an estimated $7-8 billion in 2025, in keeping with business information cited by Ramanathan. The platforms now function throughout greater than 80 cities.
ET On-lineFor snacks, the mannequin is especially highly effective as a result of the acquisition can occur with out advance planning.
Farmley’s report discovered 31% of customers choose Blinkit for snack purchases, in contrast with 16% for Zepto and 15% for Instamart.
The platforms are additionally increasing past grocery supply. Zepto Cafe, Blinkit Bistro and supply espresso, bakery merchandise, sandwiches, rolls, desserts and light-weight meals.
They’re competing for an intermediate consumption window: meals that sits between the grocery basket and the standard restaurant meal.
India’s subsequent problem is taking snacks world
The home alternative can also be elevating a much bigger query: can India flip its conventional components into world meals manufacturers?
Makhana, millets, ragi, spices and conventional Indian savouries have the components for a world story. However India’s export efficiency exhibits that processing, requirements and branding stay the larger challenges.
India exported $52.55 billion of agricultural and allied merchandise in FY26. Processed meals exports, nevertheless, fell from $8.22 billion in FY25 to $8.03 billion FY26, in keeping with APEDA information cited by Nikore.
On whether or not India can grow to be the following world meals export story, Nikore stated the time isn’t but proper. “Not but — and the binding constraint is how nascent our meals processing business nonetheless is, not whether or not the world needs our meals,” Nikore stated.
South Korea presents a helpful comparability. Its Okay-Meals Plus exports reached $13.62 billion in 2025, with prompt noodles alone crossing $1.5 billion.
India has proven it may well construct aggressive processing capability in particular person classes. Frozen French fries are one instance. Trade estimates cited by Nikore present exports rising sharply whereas dependence on imported fries fell from about 70% in FY20 to beneath 20% in FY25.
However fries stay largely a business-to-business and private-label export story. India has demonstrated processing functionality; it has but to copy that success with globally recognised client manufacturers.
Makhana presents one other lesson. Earlier claims of a four-fold export increase had been difficult by way of a broader customs classification. After devoted makhana codes got here into impact in July 2025, FY26 exports stood at simply over 7,000 tonnes, she stated.
The federal government is constructing the infrastructure. The Nationwide Makhana Board has a ₹476 crore outlay over six years, whereas food-processing schemes are increasing capability.
However firms nonetheless face challenges round finance, worldwide requirements, high quality testing, product improvement, packaging and branding.
“The infrastructure is arriving. The branding isn’t,” Nikore stated.
India’s meals alternative, then, is not solely about what customers placed on the desk. It’s about constructing the merchandise, manufacturers and events round meals — and making them journey past India.
