Kids’ Nutrition Brands Face A Familiar Struggle

Indian D2C brands are tackling the challenge of finding a healthy snacking option for children by focusing on familiar foods. One such brand, Little Joys, has introduced a protein mix for making rotis, dosas and pancakes. Another brand, Gladful, incorporates sprouted lentils and millets into breakfast mixes. The Whole Truth's Next Gen range includes milk mixes, snack bars, and protein blocks.

These brands aim to satisfy both children and parents, as children want great taste and parents want assurance of the product's effectiveness. However, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently flagged 15 brands for allegedly misleading branding and claims, including terms like "healthy", "organic", "zero maida", and "vegan".

Brands face the challenge of balancing nutrition, taste, and trust while adhering to FSSAI requirements, providing accurate formulation information, and ensuring compliance with serving sizes and nutritional values relevant to the child's age. The ICMR's nutrient requirements framework distinguishes between average requirements, recommended allowances, and upper limits.

Reducing sugar or changing conventional ingredients can impact taste and texture, while using higher-quality ingredients can increase formulation costs. Troovy, a brand that spends around ₹10-12 Lakh a month on laboratory testing, emphasizes the importance of evaluating the evidence behind the use of additives.

Established food companies have retail reach, making it difficult for startups to compete on packaging size, price points, and margin structures. Brands need to improve efficiency in procurement, manufacturing, packaging, production yields, and distribution to reduce costs. However, shelf life remains a concern, as it must maintain quality from manufacturing to consumption. The struggle for Indian D2C brands is to convince parents that investing in better ingredients and formulations is worth the premium.