Packaged food cos turn up the heat with spices
spice revolution
".
While
Nestle
has a Maggi Spice Plan, Natural's offers 'spicy guava' ice-cream and Tata Consumer's campaign for Ching's Secret noodles highlights its high spice factor. Executives at McDonald's, PepsiCo and Wow Momo said spicy-chilli foods are outselling many other staples.
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"We observed a clear shift that spice is no longer just traditional; consumers are increasingly drawn to global chilli experiences," said Saakshi Verma Menon, chief marketing officer - foods at PepsiCo India.
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The packaged snacks and beverages maker has introduced a series of variants under its mainstay Lays and Kurkure brands with higher spice intensity and regional taste preferences. These have been "designed to cater to India's growing appetite for bold, fiery flavours", Menon said.
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Executives across packaged food formats say they have stepped up research on such products for incremental value and volume, more so at a time when regional brands are giving the larger players serious competition.
"Spice has become the new normal, with one in every three new product trials over the last 12 months in the spicy category," said Sagar Daryani, cofounder and chief of Wow! Momo Foods.
He said spicy momos now contribute 25-30% of the chain's total momo sales, with hot chilli wings, Korean chicken meatballs and its spicy and saucy range as high sellers. "India is currently riding a wave of spice-driven innovation, with Gen Z and millennials increasingly leaning toward bolder, spicier and adventurous flavours," Daryani added.
ITC
,
Hindustan Unilever
, KFC and Burger King are among the others which are leveraging spice in their menus, to tap into the current trend and push sales at a time of heightened competition and muted sales.
McDonald's, which introduced its Korean range in March, positioned its menu with "an extra kick of flavour" with a spice mix. "Indian consumers appreciate bold, spicy flavours," said a spokesperson of McDonald's India (West & South).
Akash Agrawalla, cofounder at spices and ready-to-cook foods maker ZOFF Foods, said: "Consumers are now looking for multiple types of spices in convenient formats, which vary from region to region."
Nestle too has extended its Maggi instant noodles range to cheesy, garlic, manchurian and pepper variants. "There's a whole spice revolution going on in this country. Consumers want spicier and spicier stuff, whether rural or urban, GenZ or Gen Alpha," said Suresh Narayanan, the outgoing managing director at packaged foods company Nestle India.
The India unit of the Swiss foods maker's Maggi Spice Plan includes focusing on traceability of spices such as black pepper, chilli, cardamom and nutmeg.
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