India‘s frozen foods makers are stocking more vegetarian options as demand for them has increased in recent times. The demand has been spread across the country’s geographies, says a new report.

According to a Godrej report on India’s snacking patterns, all four geographic zones — north, south, east and west — witnessed an increase in both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian frozen snacks.

North India showed the most increase – 51% of respondents – in preference towards vegetarian frozen snacks. On the other hand, non-vegetarian frozen snacks preference witnessed maximum increase in East India – 39% – and South India – 38%

Almost half of the respondents to the survey – 45% – said they were consuming more vegetarian frozen snacks, while 34% said they were consuming more non-vegetarian snacks.

“A few years back, we were predominantly a poultry-driven company. We are accelerating the evolution to an integrated farm-to-fork, consumer foods company. This has opened additional avenues for us to expand our presence in the consumer foods space while also continuing to grow our B2B business footprint,” Godrej Tyson Foods CEO Abhay Parnerkar told TOI.

Godrej Tyson Foods’s frozen snacks business is split into non-vegetarian (55%) and vegetarian (45%) portfolios.

“We are consciously innovating more in the vegetarian frozen snacks to mirror the consumption habits in India where 2/3rds of frozen snacks consumption is vegetarian products,” said Parnerkar. “The consumer trend is shifting towards a higher acceptance of frozen snacks with the development of a cold chain infrastructure and consumers having larger freezer space and storage ability in their refrigerators. But it is still an under-penetrated category,” he adds.

According to Prasuma CEO Lisa Suwal, due to busy lifestyles, consumers have a paucity of time and are trying to find ways to improve their market purchase rituals.

“If one were to look at developed countries, metros especially, frozen foods are incorporated in 80% of meals that are cooked at home. It means you don’t have to rely on a fresh market visit on a daily basis,” said Suwal.

Suwal said with Prasuma’s portfolio now present across 70 cities, the appeal of frozen foods has gone beyond tier-1 cities.

“About 20% of our sales is coming from tier-2 cities and is growing at a rapid pace. This is a clear indication the Indian consumer across the geographical spectrum is opening up her/his mind to frozen foods,” he added.

With inputs from TOI