the breakfast and healthy snacks category has emerged as an outlier in the fmcg foods sector an increasing awareness around healthy eating snacking through the day and growth beyond metros into tier2 towns are driving the breakfast and healthy snacks segment even while the fmcg foods sector reported negative growthquoting nielsen consumer data kelloggs md india south asia markets prashant peres said volume growth in breakfast and healthy snacks when put together and compared with other food categories has been consistent over a span of two years from julyseptember 2020 to januarymarch this year the segment showed 18 volume growth in the first three months this year as compared to the yearago period in comparison the average fmcg foods growth was a negative 18 in the same periodwe see good traction on the penetration opportunity for the brand kelloggs achieved the highest ever penetration in march quarter with an increase of approximately 15x vs the past and exceeding 15 for sec ab households in mat moving annual total march 2022 at an allindia level said peresbagrrys group director aditya bagri said there has been a definite postpandemic shift towards healthier eating while initially it was more intent he added that now its converting into actual consumer demand theres a significant change in the consumers choice of what they want to eat the factors driving this are nutrition and convenience we get a lot of feedback that our muesli is consumed not just as a cereal with milk but also as a snack during the day onthego and also a midnight munch so the opportunity to consume the product has expanded said bagridifferent cereals are consumed at different times by people according to a product test study done with 200 homemakers across the country in partnership with ipsos early this year kelloggs found that its cornflakes are eaten by more than 80 consumers during morning breakfast time and close to 30 as evening snacks the consumption trend of kelloggs chocos also shows 74 having it in the morning as breakfast what is good to see is that a significant part of the same is also on snacking occasions with more than 60 of consumers eating this cereal in evening said peresa nestle india spokesperson said the breakfast cereals category is gaining relevance beyond the metros and tier1 towns nestle is seeing increased traction in tier2 towns the spokesperson added that the adults segment granola and muesli is seeing the fastest growth while there is also an increasing trend of delivering functional nutrition protein probiotics and local grains millets through breakfast cereals catering to the healthconscious millennials other than that the growth of the ecommerce channel has also acted as an enabler with more variety available to the consumersbagri said the consumption of breakfast cereals is also moving from urban to semiurban and to some extent rural as well that is definitely going to spur growth but theres a caveat unlike categories like staples that have grown with consumers