India has a new health concern with rural consumers lapping up ultra-processed foods like never before

On paper, rural India paints an idyllic picture. Unhurried meals built around grains, lentils, and vegetables. Home-cooked using fresh ingredients. Limited access to fast food.

But new evidence shatters this imagery and indicates that something very different is happening outside India's cities.

Rural households are rapidly adopting packaged and ultra-processed foods, reshaping the country’s nutrition profile far faster than anyone anticipated.

According to a new analysis by Tony Blair Institute for Global Change titled 'Building on Success to Secure India's Future Health', 56% of rural Indians now consume packaged foods at least once a week, a steep jump from 42% in 2015.

The report describes this as a "silent structural shift" occurring without the cultural, regulatory, and public-health buffers that typically accompany such transitions.

This shift is not small. It suggests that India’s growing packaged-food economy is no longer an urban phenomenon. It is embedding itself deep into rural markets, fuelled by cheap prices, long shelf life, and aggressive distribution networks.

Much of the country’s nutrition policy was designed with the assumption that rural diets remain relatively insulated from ultra-processed foods. But now the report challenges this assumption and warns that public-health strategies risk being outpaced by the speed of dietary change.

Obesity: From an urban problem to a national crisis?

The implications are stark. India’s obesity rates have increased five-fold over the past 30 years. One in four adults is now overweight or obese.

National Sample Survey data from 2022-23 shows that biscuits and chocolates were the main culprits, with 86.78% of households consuming them monthly, up from 69.51% in from 2011-12. Chips consumption surged dramatically from 7.38% to 44.17%. Consumption of bread (25.65%), noodles (21.06%), and packaged pickles (22.57%) also rose.

And this problem is threatening to spill over into the rural markets.

For long, obesity has been seen as an urban lifestyle issue. With eating habits changing rapidly in rural areas, obesity could one day become a rural problem as well. If that happens, could we be staring at a national crisis sooner than later?

For now, the rising consumption of ultra-processed foods in rural areas could impede efforts to combat obesity and non-communicable diseases.

Food industry vs Regulatory landscape

The report shows that the diet shift in rural areas is happening faster than in urban areas, but without adequate access to healthcare, screening, and preventive measures.

When it comes to regulation, India is lagging behind on many counts.

The report notes that unlike Chile, the United Kingdom, or Singapore, India still does not mandate warning labels for high salt, sugar and fat on the front of the pack. Restrictions on marketing unhealthy foods to children are fragmented and inconsistent, often implemented at the state level rather than nationally.

Meanwhile, multinational and domestic food companies have rapidly penetrated the Tier II, Tier III, and rural markets, with consumers unable to distinguish healthy from unhealthy foods.

On one hand, there is a powerful, well-funded food industry with strong distribution networks, retail penetration, and aggressive on-the-ground marketing. On the other hand, the regulatory landscape is fragmented and struggling to keep pace with the innovation in the industry and the shifts in dietary habits.

The Tony Blair Institute report captures this candidly: India’s regulatory tools have not kept up with the speed at which ultra-processed foods are entering the market. Manufacturers face little pressure to reformulate their products to make them healthier.

Regulation is the weakest in rural markets: there are fewer monitoring mechanisms, limited enforcement of consumer protection laws, and almost no literacy about nutrition labelling and standards.

Without clear front-of-pack labels, marketing restrictions, and nutritional standards, high-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat products will penetrate deeper into rural markets each year. Remember, these are communities that have for long relied on home-cooked meals and fresh ingredients.

So ultimately, the burden of health falls on the consumers. Here again, not all consumers are aware of the harmful effects of processed foods, especially in rural markets where nutrition literacy is low.

The stakes are high

The report rings warning bells loud and clear. If rural India continues on this path, the healthcare burden in the country, which is already strained, could get heavier.

What is unfolding in rural India is not simply a lifestyle shift. It indicates a profound change in the country's food economy, with serious health and economic consequences in the long term.

Rising consumption of ultra-processed foods in rural India could balloon into a huge public health challenge over the next decade.

The country must clean up its act when it still has the chance to do so. And that starts with strong regulations around marketing and labelling. The longer it takes for regulators to introduce policy reforms rooted in science-based nutritional standards, the deeper will be the penetration of processed foods.