• • Hello natural sugar: Sugar, in the biscuits especially, is being replaced with natural sweeteners and sugar replacers for example – stevia and fructooligosaccharides respectively. Jaggery, date syrup is also being used. Butter in the biscuits is replaced with healthy or soluble fats such as nut butter, seed butter, vegan butter, olive oil, and coconut oil.
    
    
  • Healthy slices of bread: The bakery industry is introducing bread without baker’s yeast as the leavening agent. They are developing healthy bread such as sourdough bread, multigrain bread fused with herbs, protein-rich bread using lactic acid bacteria that improve gut health and are easily digestible.

• • Immunity Boost: Biscuits manufacturers are fusing biscuits with hazelnuts, figs, ginger, granola, pears, banana, turmeric, cinnamon, clove to boost immunity. 

• • New bakery items: Bakers are experimenting with mixing different bread products such as croffle – a new bread snack formed from mixing croissants and muffin is making more customers try it. 

What do consumers want from the bread and biscuits industry? 

Biscuits and bread snacks have been a favourite munching option. As people become more health conscious, they want to cut their sugar intake to a minimum while not refraining from eating them. With the rise of fitness social media influencers emphasising on fitness and minimum calorie intake, consumers, especially the millennials, are seeking bakery products that provide high nutritional value and are fibrous. This is making bakery manufacturers include more nutritious ingredients like oats along with minimal to zero use of artificial colours and preservatives and avoiding high fructose syrup completely.  

What lies ahead for the Indian biscuit and bakery industry? 

The pandemic has forced people to revisit their plates and shift to healthier foods and immunity-boosting foods. As health remains on top of the priority list, people are willing to pay more for additive-free biscuits and bread products. Besides, additive-free, organic bakery products in the market will also show strong demand as people are aware of the side-effect of excessive fertiliser induced crops. 

Recently, FSSAI has limited the use of trans fat limit in bakery foods to 3 percent from 5 percent to prevent the risk of cardiovascular ailments. This will result in biscuits and bread manufacturers looking for fat alternatives such as unsaturated fats to adhere to regulatory requirements.