Biscuits lose crunch as chocolates and salty treats take centre stage in India’s snacking basket

As rural India cautiously pivots to western snacks and urban consumers reach for chocolates and salty treats in their impulse buys, the biscuit - once the unbeatable tea-time staple, is losing ground, according to a recent study by market research firm Kantar.

According to data from Kantar’s Worldpanel 2025 report, out-of-home biscuit consumption dropped 8 per cent in the past year even as chocolates jumped 32 per cent and salty snacks rose 6 per cent, underscoring a shift towards indulgence and impulse.

The report marks the first release since Kantar's Worldpanel division merged with Chicago-based data company Numerator, which was acquired by the market analytics firm in 2021.

“Biscuits are beginning to stagnate because they remain tied to their traditional at-home role, while categories like chocolates have reimagined themselves through gifting, premium packs and indulgent flavors,” K. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director – South Asia, Worldpanel by Numerator, told Moneycontrol in an interview.

In India, Britannia holds an estimated 38 per cent market share in the category, driven by its premium, innovative product lines (e.g., Good Day and NutriChoice), while Parle’s flagship Parle-G biscuits command a roughly 32 per cent share.

"The category is losing relevance to trendier indulgence," said Ramakrishnan, adding that snacks like wafers and chocolates have managed to reposition themselves as aspirational while biscuits haven’t broken out of their comfort-snack image. Meanwhile, he also flagged that health-focused biscuits and oats cookies haven’t been able to excite consumers at scale.

Meanwhile, beverages saw the most growth at 62 per cent YOY in the out-of-home consumption segment, according to the report, which collected data from the spending patterns of 82,000 households in India.

Majority of the incremental volume was driven by new launches, with fusion noted as the new trend to connect with the consumers. For instance, ITC Foods-owned Bingo launched a Korean chips variant amid heightened interest for Korean flavors.

"Generally, an out-of-home consumption is very experimentative in nature, more new things there are, the more their choices and more the chances of their consumption. That has not been the case in this (biscuits) business so that's perhaps one of the reasons why biscuits have not been considered. When there are suddenly lot of choices, perhaps your preference goes towards something else. It's not that biscuits have been bad. It's been marginally down, that's all. The number of launches have been lesser and as a result of which the choices are going more towards the others, (snack categories)" he added.

The study divided consumption among four clusters namely: affordable, urban middle class, masses and rural. It noted the affluent driving frozen foods and oats, the urban middle class powering categories like premium detergents and peanut butter, while rural households remain price-sensitive but are slowly adopting products such as noodles, juices and western snacks.

"Western snacks have shown a growth in rural India. Snacks like potato chips, cookies and wafers are showing growth in the rural areas, " he added.