Indians join the race for health food

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Keywords: Maggi, Pepsico

New Delhi: For a BPO employee, Neaty, a weekly visit to the supermarket these days means often scouting for food-on-the-shelf that supports her hectic lifestyle.

Neaty is just one among a growing list of consumers who prefer retail brands that come with tags promoting better health.

“Because of my work schedule, I definitely try some of the health products when they hit shelves,” she says.

“Kids these days prefer chocolates and biscuits which is why I purchase things like Kit-Kat Lite and Diet Coke,” says a homemaker, Alaphia.

So if Britannia has been retailing Digestive Marie and Slimz Cheese, ITC has just announced health cookies under Sachin's Slim-Kit name, and India's largest food company Nestle is busy hard-selling Atta Maggie, Everyday Slim and most recently, Kit-Kat Lite. The latest to unravel its big plans is Pepsi.

“We have launched Namkeen Lites and which is low fat namkeen. Plus we have cheetos with 25% less fat and a range of choices giving nutritional information,” says functional foods, Pepsico India, Manu Anand.

While food companies are more than eager to steer clear of the bad press that recent issues like colas in schools have created, their appetite for health food has also been whetted by retail research like the one by Acnielsen.

The company found out that Indians last year were amongst the Top 10 Buyers of Foods with Health Supplements globally. But not everyone on the shop floor is biting the health food bait.

Indians love their namkeen and kachaudis too much, which is perhaps why we may be a long way from driving a company bankrupt merely on a health fad.

Remember the Atkins craze in US and how that scripted the downfall of Crispy creams? But food brands in India aren't about to take chances, they are on a launch spree and backing it with big marketing spends.

So shoppers can be rest assured that this isn't a slim whim that will lapse ones the new year passes.