Protein Fortification & Functional Foods Consumer Study

India's functional-food aisle tripled its protein claims in three years, and almost everything the industry believes about why shoppers pay for them is assumption. This report replaces the assumption with evidence: 14,200 structured shopper interviews across six cities, a 1,100-household diary sub-study, and a retail audit of 480 protein-claimed SKUs with laboratory verification of forty of them.

The findings are organised around commercial decisions rather than demographics. Premium ceilings by category. The permission effect in snacking, quantified. The trust deficit — 58 percent of shoppers doubt the claims — with the lab audit showing which claim styles survive scrutiny and which invite the exposé. Channel analysis shows modern trade leading trial but kirana-adjacent formats driving repeat, with the assortment implications for both.

Brand teams get the claims playbook: which wording, dosing disclosures and price points the evidence supports, category by category. Retailers get the shelf-economics analysis. Investors get the category forecasts with an honest treatment of how fast a trust collapse could travel through the claim-heavy segment.