India’s packaged snack aisle, was once dominated by words like—crispy, fried and masala. Today, they feature claims such as ‘baked’, ‘multigrain,’ ‘high protein,’ or ‘zero added sugar.’
The shift comes at a moment when health concerns are rising sharply. Recently, The World Obesity Atlas 2026 estimated that 14 million children in India are affected by obesity, placing our country second globally. Against this backdrop, food brands are recalibrating how they position snacks, leaning heavily into health-forward messaging.
But beneath the packaging and advertising lies a larger question: are these products genuinely healthier, or is the industry mastering the art of health halo marketing?
The rise of the ‘Health Halo’
In advertising circles, the term health halo refers to a simple psychological effect: a single positive cue can make consumers perceive a product as healthier overall, even if the underlying formulation has changed little.
According to Abhijat Bharadwaj, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative Isobar, snack marketing often works this way. “Every one of those words is doing one job: giving the consumer permission,” he says. “Permission to eat the thing they were going to eat anyway, but without the guilt.”
Terms like multigrain or baked carry strong associations with wellness. But they can be technically accurate while still incomplete in what they communicate.
“Multigrain doesn’t mean healthy. It just means more than one grain,” Bharadwaj explains. “Baked doesn’t mean low calorie. It means not fried. But the consumer reads these words and fills in the rest.”
This cognitive shortcut is exactly why these cues dominate snack packaging and advertising. A baked chip, for example, allows consumers to feel they have made a better choice even if the difference is marginal.
Vishal Nicholas, EVP & Head of Strategy & Solutions, Dentsu BX India echoes, “We are in an era where words are increasingly making less difference as talk is cheap and can obfuscate as well. But what is making a difference is a brand’s intent or purpose. When the brand’s intent is to make food authentically healthy then consumers start to pay attention and it is then that words like ‘no palm oil’ or ‘no preservatives’ get their attention and possibly to try the product.”
Meanwhile, a new generation of brands has built their identity entirely around ingredient transparency. Brands like Slurrp Farm, Pluckk, and The Whole Truth Foods have positioned themselves as ‘clean-label’ alternatives, foregrounding simple ingredient lists and nutritional clarity.
For Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, Co-Founders, Wholsum Foods the narrative was not originally designed as a marketing tactic.
“When we started Slurrp Farm, we were two mothers who couldn’t find food for our children that we felt good about,” Narayan says. “Ingredient transparency was simply the baseline we set for ourselves.”
Over time, that philosophy became a competitive advantage. They found that parents are reading the back of the pack more closely and upon seeing familiar ingredients, it builds trust that advertising alone can’t manufacture.
Transparency, however, comes with its own pressure. “The challenge for challenger brands,” Malik notes, “is maintaining that integrity as they scale. The pressure to grow quickly can push companies towards shortcuts.”
Do consumers actually understand nutrition labels?
Despite the explosion of health claims, marketers say consumer understanding of nutrition remains uneven.
“Consumers often read ‘no added sugar’ and interpret it as ‘no sugar,’” Narayan explains. “That tells you how much work the industry still has to do on clear communication.”
The gap between marketing language and nutritional literacy is a critical issue in India, where label reading is still far from universal.
Pratik Gupta, Co-founder of Pluckk believes the problem is structural.
“Consumers are still fooled,” he says bluntly. “The lack of clear regulations contributes to this. Abroad, front-of-pack information requirements are mandatory, which helps consumers make better informed choices.”
A category growing faster than traditional snacks
Even with questions around consumer literacy, the business momentum behind health-led snacks is undeniable. Gupta estimates that better-for-you snack categories are growing roughly twice as fast as traditional indulgent snacks.
Marketing investment is following the growth.
Gupta says his company allocates 20 to 25 per cent of revenue to advertising, largely focused on consumer education. “For every `1 spent on advertising, we see roughly `4 to `5 in revenue,” he explains.
The communication strategy focuses on explaining ingredient benefits and emerging health trends such as mood, sleep, and skin health. “We centre our messaging on helping customers understand trends and ingredients,” Gupta adds.
Ajinkya Hange, Co-Founder, Two Brothers Organic Farms explains that health-led snacks are seeing stronger growth, partly because they are coming off a lower base. At the same time, they are also helping bring back Gen Z and millennial consumers who had otherwise reduced their consumption of traditional indulgent snacks.
Where marketing happens first
In the snack category, advertising does not begin on television or social media. It begins on the shelf.
According to Swati Nathani, Co-founder and CBO of Team Pumpkin words on the packaging play a decisive role in shaping perception.
“These words function as cognitive pre-approvals,” she says. “By the time a consumer’s hand reaches the shelf, the brain has already formed a judgment.”
In India’s general trade environments, many purchases are instinctive. Health cues therefore work alongside visual signals such as colour and texture. “The pack has about three seconds to communicate its value proposition,” Nathani explains.
“Saffron tones suggest purity, green suggests naturalness, and kraft textures signal artisanal care,” she says. “These visual codes work with the words to build a health narrative.”
But as more brands adopt the same cues, differentiation is becoming harder.
“When every brand claims to be rooted in nature,” Nathani says, “the signal loses meaning.”
Social media, creators and the new nutrition conversation
Another force reshaping snack marketing is the rise of digital creators. Melanie Joe, Executive Creative Director - Copywriting, TheSmallBigIdea emphasises that influencers and nutrition creators have become a major driver of health food narratives by making healthy snacking aspirational rather than just sensible.
Unlike traditional ads, creators simplify complex nutritional concepts using relatable language and personal routines.
“Because the messaging comes from a relatable face rather than a brand logo, the trust quotient is very high,” Joe explains.
The creative industry’s ethical question
As health messaging becomes more sophisticated, creative agencies face a difficult line between simplification and exaggeration.
According to Vibhor Yadav, Regional Creative Officer - North & South and Founding Partner, tgthr consumer scrutiny is already changing how brands communicate. He highlights “One of the good things that have come out of social media backlash on brands is the social responsibility that has come into communication. Brands now want to be as transparent as possible and that does change the creative for good. Nothing is hidden and hence communication is transparent.”
But not everyone believes the industry has fully confronted the ethical implications. Bharadwaj argues that the problem lies in implication rather than outright falsehood. “You can say what your product is,” he says. “But if the creative makes someone believe the product makes them fitter or replaces healthy eating, that’s where the line is crossed.”
In markets where nutrition literacy is still evolving, that line matters.
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