Updated
Updated · The Financial Express · Aug 15
India Snack Brands Push Fibre-Rich Products as 70% Fall Short of Daily Intake
Updated
Updated · The Financial Express · Aug 15

India Snack Brands Push Fibre-Rich Products as 70% Fall Short of Daily Intake

3 articles · Updated · The Financial Express · Aug 15

Summary

  • Nearly 70% of Indians consume less fibre than recommended, a gap that is steering young consumers toward beans, lentils, millets, makhanas and seed-based snacks.
  • PepsiCo India, ITC and newer brands are reformulating portfolios around fibre as shoppers link it to digestion, satiety and the gut-brain connection, with Mintel saying fibre and protein are now mainstream purchase drivers.
  • Quick-commerce is accelerating that shift: Healthy Master processes about 75,000 orders a month, with 50% of sales already coming from Blinkit, Zepto and similar platforms, a share it expects to reach 75% next year.
  • The broader change is turning fibre from a niche health claim into a core design principle for Indian snacking, spanning traditional grains, clean-label products and convenient urban formats.

Insights

If fibre is the new protein, are these packaged snacks truly healing our guts or just brilliantly masking ultra-processed junk food?
Quick commerce is pushing 'fibermaxxing' to urban youth, but do these highly processed millet puffs actually deliver real nutritional benefits?
With corporate giants rushing to exploit India's fibre gap, could the mass commercialization of ancient grains secretly threaten rural food security?