Category Growth
How the healthy snacking and makhana category is evolving: what is driving growth, how consumers are adopting it, and where it goes next.
The category is growing, and splitting as it grows
Week of 9 June 2026
Healthy snacking is still moving your way, with flavoured makhana pulling the curve.
Parents want lunchbox swaps but cite spice and trust concerns.
No makhana brand owns 'crunchiest' in AI answers. Your defining attribute is unclaimed on the new shelf.
Where the momentum is concentrated
Momentum read across the forces shaping the category, scored 0 to 100.
Healthy snacking is still moving your way, with flavoured makhana pulling the curve.
Bold flavours, peri-peri especially, are where the energy and repeat sit.
Strong product and premium equity, weak discovery, close the gap and the rest is in place.
What is pulling the category forward
Ranked by strength of signal. Each driver links to its evidence.
- 1Flavour expansion90
Flavoured makhana is outgrowing plain roughly two to one.
- 2Bold, craveable flavour84
Peri-peri and tangy-masala demand is proven, not speculative.
- 3Premiumisation80
Buyers will pay premium when quality and value are visible.
- 4Single-serve and impulse formats78
The impulse occasion is expanding and single-serve is unclaimed.
- 5Quick-commerce discovery74
Quick commerce is becoming where the craving converts.
- 6Clean-label credibility68
Specific, checkable health proof is becoming table stakes.
- 7Occasion expansion62
Office, late-night, and travel occasions are opening up.
How buyers are adopting the category
The category sits in the early-majority phase: past the early adopters, into the mainstream.
Crunch & texture
HighCrunch is the one thing consumers already give you credit for. Most brands treat it as table stakes; you should treat it as the headline.
Turn crunch into an explicit, branded promise ('consistently crunchy, every pack') and make it the repeated message everywhere discovery happens.
Health trust
MediumThe health doubt is the single biggest cap on repeat. It's not a taste problem; it's an unproven-claim problem.
Replace adjectives with specific, checkable proof on pack and listing: roasted-not-fried, protein grams, no palm oil.
Repeat-purchase confidence
MediumYou've already won the hard part, trial converts. The growth leaking out is repeat you delighted once and failed to convince twice.
Close the loop at the moment of doubt: credible health proof, consistent crunch, and a reason to re-order (subscription, value math).
Price-per-gram anxiety
MediumYou have premium permission, but it's conditional. Vague health + premium price is the easiest purchase to abandon.
Make the value math explicit, per-serve cost, portion control, calories, so the premium feels earned, not arbitrary.
Guilt-free indulgence
MediumIf your messaging talks discipline, it's talking to the wrong buyer. Lead with permission.
Make 'guilt-free craving' the brand's emotional hook across pack and creator content.
Spicy flavour demand
MediumBold heat is where craveability and crunch combine best, the natural home for a signature flavour.
Make peri-peri the signature flavour and lead the range with bold heat.
The category is reaching into new moments
Rising occasions where healthy snacking is winning new consumption.
Office snacking
MediumUnowned
Own it with single-serve office multipacks and the Monday-snack moment.
Late-night cravings
LowJunk snacks
Position bold single-serve as the guilt-free 11pm snack on QC.
Impulse craving (QC)
MediumToo Yumm!/Farmley by placement
Single-serve + top-of-search QC placement.
Between-meeting snacking
MediumOffice biscuit tin
Office multipack stashed at the desk.
Post workout
LowBars/whey
Validate a protein SKU; don't over-claim.
Kids lunchbox
LowPuffs/biscuits
Watchlist, mild flavour + parent-trust proof first.
From plain, to flavoured, to bold and indulgent
The flavour frontier the category is moving toward, ranked by how it could play out.
Peri-peri
The breakout flavour; bold heat showcases crunch; no one owns it as identity.
Only if execution is generic and undifferentiated.
Consider building now, make it the brand's signature flavour.
Tangy-masala / chatpata
Core desi palate, familiar and repeatable, low risk.
Hard to differentiate without a sharp recipe.
Consider building now as the everyday companion to peri-peri.
Cheese / makhan-masala
Indulgence plus permission; low-saturation whitespace.
Can read 'unhealthy' if not framed carefully.
Consider validating then build, framed as indulgent-but-clean.
Cream & onion
Universally liked gateway flavour.
Commodity; hard to stand out.
Consider building as a portfolio staple, not a hero.
Himalayan pink salt & pepper
Premium-clean signal; pairs with the trust story.
Low excitement on its own.
Consider building as the clean/premium anchor SKU.
Schezwan / Indo-Chinese
Beloved Indo-Chinese palate.
Heat fatigue vs peri-peri.
Consider validating after peri-peri lands.
The nascent corners worth watching
Subcategories forming at the edge of the category: unproven, but moving.
Cheese / makhan-masala indulgent flavour
An indulgent-but-credible flavour for the craving occasion.
Consider validating then build, framed as indulgent-but-clean.
Travel pack
Spill-proof, portion-right packs for journeys and commuting.
Offer travel packs via travel retail and QC.
Schezwan / Indo-Chinese flavour
A beloved fusion profile to extend the bold-flavour range.
Consider validating schezwan as a range extension.
Cheese jalapeño metro-youth flavour
An on-trend indulgent-heat flavour for younger metro buyers.
Consider validating cheese jalapeño on quick commerce.
Kids crunch range
Mild, fun-flavoured, lunchbox-sized makhana with parent-trust proof.
Consider validating carefully before committing.
Lighter-salt 'lite' variant
A clearly-labelled lower-salt version of a hero flavour.
Consider launching a labelled lighter-salt variant.
What could slow or reshape the category
Growth invites competition and commoditisation. The risks worth planning against.
Farmley is compounding into the default
- Four new SKUs, rising reviews, creators, and AI presence in one window.
- 'Flavoured makhana = Farmley' could harden into a default you must pay to escape.
- Contest crunch and single-serve now; refuse the breadth race.
Repeat is leaking on an unproven health story
- The 'is it actually healthy?' doubt surfaces at the second purchase.
- Trust, not taste, is capping repeat, the most profitable behaviour.
- Consider rewriting claims to specifics and close the trust loop.
A latent Tata Sampann entry could reset the category
- Tata holds makhana as a minor line, for now.
- Distribution and trust mean an entry would scale overnight.
- Consider building specialist authority and loyalty before they move.
Farmley is compounding, not just competing
- Breadth, reviews, creators, and AI presence are reinforcing each other.
- Category leadership is won across quarters of compounding, not one event.
- Contest the discovery shelf now, before the default hardens.
The tailwind is real, and the window is finite
Premature launch risks the trust that matters most to parents.
Consider making crunch the citable signature in all owned content.
The category is moving toward premium, craveable, convenient makhana. The brands that win are the ones that plant a clear flag before the growth invites everyone in.
Strong growth, splitting toward a premium, flavour-led half and a value half.
Bold flavour, single-serve impulse formats, and quick-commerce discovery.
A signature flavour and the single-serve format, before the growth invites everyone in.
What we are still watching
The open questions, monitored signals, and tensions behind the conclusions above. Not everything here is a conclusion.
Category demand signals remain positive across search and marketplace.
Momentum looks uneven across channels and occasions, not a uniform rise.
- Is category growth broad, or concentrated in a few flavours and channels?
- Are new occasions additive, or shifting consumption from existing ones?
- Flavoured vs plain splitStrong signal
- Quick-commerce share of categoryModerate signal
- Regional flavour preferencesEarly signal
Growth signals are positive but uneven. Quick commerce and flavoured variants read stronger than traditional retail, where our visibility is thinnest.