Redefining Everyday Indulgence in India’s Biscuit Category
Introduction: The Emotional Connect of Bakery
Bakery remains one of the most expansive and beloved food categories, deeply embedded in everyday consumer life across cultures, age groups, and consumption occasions—with biscuits emerging as the true front-runner driving growth and everyday relevance within the segment. From daily staples such as breads, buns, and rusks to indulgent treats like cakes and pastries, the bakery category caters to a wide spectrum of needs. Yet, it is biscuits that consistently anchor consumption—from breakfast pairings and tea-time rituals to on-the-go snacking and small moments of indulgence. Their accessibility, affordability, and versatility make them a powerful force shaping the future of the bakery aisle.
What makes the bakery category—and increasingly the biscuit segment—truly relatable is its strong emotional connection with consumers. The aroma of freshly baked products evokes comfort, warmth, and nostalgia, while familiar flavours create moments of joy and togetherness. Today, biscuits are evolving beyond their traditional role, blending classic favourites with modern formats, fusion inspirations, and premium innovations that reflect shifting lifestyles and rising taste aspirations. In doing so, they are redefining everyday indulgence—balancing familiarity with novelty in ways that resonate across generations.
At Keva Flavours, we recognise the depth and diversity of the bakery segment, with market insights guiding innovation at the forefront. Understanding evolving consumer preferences, regional taste nuances, and emerging indulgence trends allows us to help brands stay ahead in a highly competitive biscuit landscape. Backed by strong expertise in flavour creation, we deliver application-driven, sensory-backed solutions that ensure consistency, authenticity, and innovation across bakery products. By combining insight-led strategy with technical know-how and formulation expertise, we translate desired taste profiles into scalable solutions—enabling brands to create distinctive, memorable, and future-ready biscuit experiences.
India’s Changing Consumer Landscape: A Biscuit Market Overview
India’s demographics reflect a young and rapidly evolving consumer base, with Gen Z and millennia’s forming a significant portion of the population and strongly influencing purchase decisions. This cohort is increasingly inclined towards value-added products, new taste experiences, and premium offerings—particularly in urban markets that account for nearly 36% of the population.
At the same time, India continues to remain largely rural, with 64% of the population residing outside cities, where availability, affordability, familiarity, and value-driven consumption dominate purchase behaviour. This urban–rural mix creates a high-volume yet aspirational market where brands must balance taste, accessibility, and innovation to remain competitive.
Biscuits and cookies enjoy deep market penetration in India, with nearly 90% of the population consuming them regularly. Traditional varieties such as Marie and glucose biscuits continue to remain popular, while insights from leading market intelligence platforms indicate that nearly 30% of consumers consume six or more types of biscuits—highlighting a strong appetite for variety and experimentation. Alongside indulgence, there is also a growing shift toward health-conscious consumption, with increasing demand for low-sugar, high-fibre, and fortified biscuit options.
Key Growth Drivers in India’s Bakery Market
India’s bakery and biscuit market continues to demonstrate steady growth across both urban and rural regions, supported by evolving consumption patterns and improved access to packaged foods. The biscuit category, valued at approximately USD 7.3 billion in 2024, is projected to reach nearly USD 10.5 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.1%—reflecting its strong everyday relevance and ability to adapt to changing consumer expectations across income groups and geographies. Regionally, North India leads consumption with a 28% share, supported by robust retail presence and manufacturing infrastructure, followed by West India at 25%, driven by higher urban incomes and demand for more differentiated and health-oriented variants. South India accounts for 24%, reflecting stable demand shaped by diverse taste preferences and increasing interest in functional offerings, while East India contributes 23%, witnessing gradual growth through deeper penetration and rising adoption of newer formats.
Within the category, sweet cookies (25%) and glucose biscuits (22%) continue to dominate, followed by Marie (18%) and salted crackers (11%), while the remaining 24% comprises emerging and niche biscuit formats that reflect the category’s evolving breadth. High-growth segments such as cream biscuits, specialty cookies, digestives, and innovative cracker variants are expected to outpace traditional staples—indicating a shift toward value-added and innovation-led offerings. This momentum is closely aligned with changing consumer behaviour, where purchase decisions are influenced by a blend of trusted brands, familiar flavour profiles, and a growing openness to new taste experiences. Products that deliver enhanced sensory appeal—such as softer textures, richer mouthfeel, and distinctive flavour combinations—are increasingly gaining traction, underlining the importance of flavour and texture innovation in shaping category growth.
Further strengthening this outlook, tax rationalisation within India’s GST framework is improving accessibility to everyday food staples such as biscuits. The reduction in GST from 12% to 5%, effective September 22, 2024, is expected to ease cost pressures across the value chain, with a more pronounced impact across urban retail networks, enabling manufacturers to maintain competitive price points while optimising pack sizes or grammage in city markets where value perception strongly influences purchase decisions.
As urban lifestyles become increasingly fast paced, convenience led consumption is rising, with snacking on the go gaining prominence alongside the enduring cultural relevance of tea time occasions. The continued growth of modern retail and e commerce in urban centres is further improving product visibility and accessibility, with smaller pack formats playing a vital role in driving both trial and repeat consumption.
At the same time, rural and semi urban markets are emerging as key expansion engines, supported by affordable pack sizes, wider distribution, and locally relevant offerings, ultimately reinforcing the long term growth potential of India’s bakery segment.
Dominant Flavour Profiles Shaping the Biscuit Category
Timeless flavours such as vanilla and butter continue to form the backbone of India’s biscuit market, offering a creamy sweetness and rich melt in the mouth indulgence that evokes everyday nostalgia. Vanilla brings smooth, comforting warmth with soft caramel like notes, while buttery profiles deliver rounded richness that enhances texture and taste across formats. A subtle touch of chocolate adds depth without overpowering familiarity, making it widely appealing across age groups.
Within the sweet cream biscuit segment targeted at children, flavour becomes even more central to driving excitement and repeat consumption. Alongside these classics, ethnic flavour notes such as rose, saffron, and cardamom remain highly relevant, drawing inspiration from traditional Indian sweets and festive indulgences that often influence family purchase decisions. At the same time, fruit forward options like orange, strawberry, and mango offer a playful balance of sweetness and tang, resonating strongly with younger consumers who gravitate toward vibrant, fun, and indulgent taste experiences.
Beyond these established profiles, the biscuit category is also witnessing the rise of emerging and novel flavour experiences that are redefining everyday indulgence. Ingredients such as ginger, pineapple, cinnamon, walnut, peanut butter, butterscotch, and chocolate truffle are gaining traction as emerging favourites, offering layered taste profiles that move beyond conventional sweetness. At the same time, novel formats inspired by dessert and café style indulgences such as red velvet, brownie, mocha, berries, lemon, banana, and blackcurrant are introducing a sense of premiumisation and experimentation within familiar biscuit formats. These evolving flavour directions reflect a growing appetite for differentiated taste experiences that balance comfort with curiosity, especially among younger and urban consumers.
These core and evolving flavour profiles continue to dominate due to their familiarity, versatility, and emotional connect, ensuring their relevance as the biscuit category evolves toward premiumisation and innovation in the future. From classic dairy notes to Indian favourites like jeera and coconut, along with fruit led profiles, Keva supports brands with application driven flavour solutions, recipe re-engineering, and consumer insights, helping deliver consistent taste, texture, and product appeal from concept to commercialisation.
Keva’s Flavour Solutions for the Biscuit Segment
At Keva Flavours, we support the evolving demands of the bakery industry with a comprehensive portfolio of natural and nature-identical flavour solutions tailored specifically for biscuit applications. Our expertise lies in delivering bake-stable flavours that retain their integrity through high-temperature processing, ensuring consistent taste, aroma, and performance in the final product.
From classic dairy notes and indulgent western profiles to ethnic, floral, and artisanal flavour concepts, our solutions are designed to complement a wide range of formulations—including low-sugar and sugar-free variants—without compromising on sensory appeal. By combining application knowledge with technical precision, we help brands achieve balanced taste delivery while aligning with emerging preferences around well-being and product differentiation.
To support your next product innovation, explore our brochure and blogsto learn more about our capabilities in the bakery segment. Connect with us at connect.flavours@keva.co.into discover how our flavour expertise can help you craft distinctive and memorable biscuit experiences.
ArrayKeva has an extensive flavour shop for various food and beverage applications, besides a team of expert flavourists and food technologists for creating custom flavours and matches. To partner with us, contact Keva today.
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The statements, views, thoughts and opinions expressed on blog or social media are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Keva Flavours or its parent organisation. The company does not take any responsibility for the views of the author.