The soft drink industry comprises of sparkling drinks, concentrates, bottled water, juices, smoothies, functional drinks and ready-to-drink tea and coffee.
Time has come for Indian soft drink manufacturing industry to listen to the concerns and needs of consumers of all ages in terms of the impact on health and provide a wide range of products.
Use of natural ingredients
The Indian soft drink scenario has slowly changed towards witnessing the use of natural ingredients, increased juice content and lowering of sugar in most of the beverages.
As consumers turn health-conscious, new companies are introducing new products with cleaner ingredients and value-added benefits. Still at very nascent stage the new in-coming products focus on functional benefits including hydration, vitamin enhancers, meal replacement and energy boosters.
Drinking water is fastest-growing
In the beverage segment, drinking water is the fastest-growing segment due to lack of safe drinking water in public places and an increasing number of health-conscious consumers seeking variety in the water they drink.
The market is flooded with variants of water ranging from vitamin-enriched to alkaline water, flavoured natural mineral water, herb and fruits infused flavoured water with the goodness of amla, tulsi, ginger, cumin, mint, saffron, honey, apple, orange, peach, kiwi and raspberry.
Free from calorie laden sugar
The range of fruit beverages made from fruits are mostly free from calorie laden sugar and packaged using the most modern and safe beverage technology of aseptic PET which ensures that the beverage is made without any preservatives. Ready-to-drink milk-based beverages ranging from milk shake to spiced buttermilk and different probiotic drinks also prevail in the market.
Apart from these, manufacturers are focussed on introducing new variants of carbonates to push growth in the category. Carbonated soft drinks market covers colas, lemon, orange and other flavoured carbonated soft drinks. The industry has a broad-based growth across categories especially helped by key growth factors such as under penetration of segment, growing middle class, rising affordability and urbanisation and rural electrification besides continued innovations towards packaging and sizing.
Flavonoid rich tea
Evolution of organic and natural beverages has slowly emerged out with people becoming more aware of these products and seeking them out due to concerns over the harmful effects of the use of pesticides on crops. The flavonoid rich tea has entered the segment of ready-to-drink beverage.
FSSAI has also kick-started a movement towards safer and healthier segment of food for the people of India through the “Eat Right” movement. So, the new series of beverages in the market must address the lifestyle-led problems of consumers by providing beverages to boast immune systems, maintain cholesterol, weight and address vitamin deficiencies.
