Can Amul Get Indians To Take Their Proteins?

It’s no secret that most Indians are protein deficient, barely meeting the standard recommendation of 0.8-1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight daily.

But that’s not the Indian consumer’s biggest problem. The trouble is that most of us don’t seem to care about getting in our protein. Consequently, the market for protein supplements and other products with a ‘high-protein’ tag has largely remained limited to whey protein supplements and protein bars, largely geared towards sports nutrition.

Now an old-school cooperative is attempting what a whole host of sports supplement brands and new-age consumer firms haven’t managed to do so far: bring more protein into our lives.

Amul has spent the last two years launching a portfolio of high-protein products, starting with package lassi and buttermilk, expanding to include whey protein powder, paneer, and in May this year, a ‘super milk’ with 35g protein in a small tetra pak, nearly four times more than in regular milk.

For now, Amul is retailing its entire high-protein range largely on its direct-to-consumer website, although it has also begun offering selected products on quick commerce platforms in some pincodes. 

Can Amul replicate its White Revolution of the 1970s and fix India’s chronic, widespread protein deficiency? It depends.

Wh(e)y Protein?

A quick recap: in the 1960s, dairy engineer Dr Verghese Kurien successfully set up a dairy farmers’ cooperative in Anand Gujarat, which came to be known as Amul Dairy. Then, as chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, he replicated the Gujarat cooperative model nationwide in the 1970s, unleashing what we now know as Operation Flood. India achieved the impossible: self-sufficiency in milk production led by farmer-led cooperatives rather than profit-seeking private enterprises.

Amul did not answer a questionnaire sent by The Core. We will update this article if we receive a response.

But any brand involved in protein-rich product development has its work cut out for it, as consumer awareness is quite low. A 2020 study (pdf) by the Indian Council of Medical Research found Indians on average consumed only 20-50g protein a day, much below standard daily recommendations. What’s more, the study found a majority of this protein in our diet comes from cereals, millets, pulses and legumes rather than meat or dairy products.

Established protein supplement brands say they struggle to educate potential customers about protein deficiency.

“Protein deficiency doesn't cause immediate symptoms like fever, but its effects accumulate over time,” Ravinder Varma, brand manager at RiteBite Max Protein, a protein snacks brand, told The Core. “You might notice hair loss, brittle nails, poor skin health, and even muscle mass loss as your body lacks the necessary building blocks to maintain these structures.”

A big turning point was the Covid-19 pandemic which got people to take their health seriously. A 2022 survey by consulting firm EY found that post the pandemic, an overwhelming majority of Indians spent more on ‘healthy’ packaged food; 40% of those surveyed said they were willing to pay more for healthier food and dietary supplements.

RiteBite’s Varma said he found a significant surge in demand for protein products, prompting the brand to launch new categories, including plant protein and high-protein granola.

Another big question for high-protein proponents is: how do Indians want to have their protein?

Among the earliest set of protein-first products in India are whey protein powders, positioned to be sold to fitness enthusiasts and athletes. These include both imported brands such as global market leader Optimum Nutrition and homegrown and independent brands such as MuscleBlaze (owned by HealthKart). In the last year, smaller independent brands such as The Whole Truth have also launched whey protein powders marketed not to athletes but to ordinary, health-conscious consumers.

The first shift towards mass consumers in the protein supplements market came In 2018, when Hindustan Unilever acquired Horlicks from the pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline. Horlicks launched a Protein+ variant, a new proposition in the market for malted food drinks or MFDs. Competitors in this business include Boost, Bournvita, Complan, and Milo largely catering to growing children with the promise of imparting great flavour to that daily glass of cow’s milk.

Malted food drinks have since lost their lustre, coming under fire for their high sugar content and hollow nutrition promises. Meanwhile, a comprehensive medical study found several popular whey protein powder brands were misleading customers about their actual protein content and the presence of harmful additives. It has led some to believe protein supplements may be ‘unnatural’, even harmful.

“For a regular everyday guy, they don't want to add anything or have supplements. They feel like they are consuming chemicals if they consume protein powders. Habit creation is always difficult, except where convenience is involved, that's where the bars have scored,” Sudarshan Gangrade, founder of Protein Chef, an independent brand selling high-protein staples such as bread and atta, told The Core.

The thesis for the brand Protein Chef comes from the founder’s belief that protein needs to become a part of the existing Indian thalis. Protein Chef sells a range of staples in protein-rich variants like a high protein multigrain flour, bread, a snacking mix, and protein mix that can be added to your regular flour etc. Since its launch in late 2022, the brand has grown 250% in terms of sales and is expecting to double it year-on-year.

“All of the options - BCAA powders, plant-based protein powders, protein bars, whey protein beverages have been blindly copied from the west,” Protein Chef's Gangrade said. “It is not a habit or behaviour that a majority of Indians have developed yet.”

This is also the line that Amul is following, by aiming to get people to substitute their regular milk, lassi, buttermilk and other products with a protein-rich alternative. While this eases the consumer that is not willing to add a new product to their daily food intake, the substitution requires a proactive effort.

Additionally, there is not much on offer apart from the higher protein content. According to RiteBite’s Varma, who also worked on developing the company’s products, this might pose a problem.

“We introduced a high-protein cookie that is bigger in size than any other on the market,” Varma said. “For a product to stand out and change consumer habits, it needs a unique selling point that also goes beyond just high protein content.”

Taste Test

Enough awareness and accessibility in the right form factors might get people to try a high-protein product, what many brands have had to solve for is to make the taste palatable. A lot of the difference in taste between regular and protein-rich variants depends on the source of protein.

For example, Get-A-Way (previously Get-A-Whey), a brand that makes high-protein ice cream and desserts, adds whey protein isolate in its products. “It does alter the taste but that is balanced with other ingredients in the ice cream, including the sweetener,” co-founder and chief marketing officer Pashmi Shah Agarwal told The Core.

In fact, Agarwal picked the tagline “so good you forget that it’s healthy” to drive home the point that eating healthy need not mean compromising on taste and satisfaction.

“We wanted people to eat an ice cream as an ice cream, not like a healthy product or healthy dessert,” Agarwal said.

On Protein Chef’s part, the company relied on multiple sources of additional protein so that the taste of bread or atta doesn’t change too much, Gangrade said.

“Multigrain atta(flour) and bread is in vogue right now, so people do not mind the additional ingredients and change in texture. In fact, people expect healthier foods to have a texture difference like we’ve seen with digestive biscuits which are coarser,” he added.

Amul’s high-protein buttermilk has already received mixed reviews on platforms such as Amazon. Several point out the high-protein variant has a much thicker texture, making it difficult to have it directly from the carton.

Amul might be able to solve for the difference in taste and texture in its buttermilk, lassi and blueberry shake with other ingredients having the overpowering flavour. But for its high-protein milk; whose ingredient list mentions water, milk solids, enzyme (beta-galactosidase), artificial flavouring substances (vanilla); the difference in taste might be more prominent.

Price and Availability

Whenever an additional nutritional benefit is added to a product, the prices inch up. In this case, Amul’s pricing from a price per gram of protein perspective is quite aggressive. Here’s the math.

A 250 ml packet of Amul’s high protein milk costs Rs 99 and contains 35 grams of protein. This comes up to ∼Rs 2.8 per gram of protein. In this product, the only competitor available online is The Brooklyn Creamery whose per gram protein delivery is Rs 6.7.

A protein bar from RiteBite Max Protein in its ‘daily’ range costs Rs 75 and contains 10 grams of protein. A consumer pays Rs 7.5 per gm of protein. In the case of ice creams from Get-A-Way, a tub delivering 8-10 grams is priced at Rs 135, making it an unviable option for many.

Epigamia, a greek yogurt brand, also launched high-protein shakes at Rs 150 which has 25 grams of protein, pricing the protein at Rs 6 per gram. In comparison, Amul’s blueberry high-protein shake is Rs 50 and contains 20 grams of protein, with a price per gram of protein as low as Rs 2.5.

Protein Chef’s high protein bread costs Rs 99 but contains a whopping 62 gm of protein, pricing the protein at just Rs 1.5 per gram. But founder Gangrade says that this is because of the cost of the source of protein.

“For Amul, whey is a by-product. This gives them a big cost advantage. We deliver protein through atta and through mixture and through peanuts, which is again relatively cheaper in terms of cost structures,” he said.

The accessible pricing might give Amul an edge over competitors but the availability as of now remains a major roadblock in popular adoption of the product.

Amul’s protein range is currently sold through its own website only, where it sells by the carton, each containing 24, 30 or 32 individually packed products. It has recently introduced a 8-pack milk SKU too. This means that anyone who wants to try this range, needs to have access to the internet, know how to place orders and be willing to shell out a minimum of around Rs 750.

So while they have priced it conservatively, the range would mostly be picked up by those serious and conscious about their protein consumption and actively seeking out high-protein products, at least in its current launch phase.

“They have access to distribution, they have access to advertising and they have made the price point also very accessible,” Protein Chef’s Gangrade says. “But Amul is also a mainstream brand, they need a product line where minimum it should be Rs. 200-500 crores. So, this will take some time to build out. Now, whether they will have the patience to back it or not, looks like they will have it.”