Collapse All
-
INTRODUCTION
- What you need to know
- The outlook for the Indian functional drinks category
- Active living and healthy ageing fuel demand for functional drinks
- Graph 1: frequency of looking for healthier products when choosing packaged drinks, by frequency of doing exercise in last three months, 2026
- Graph 2: frequency of looking for healthier products when choosing packaged drinks, by age, 2026
- The drinks market is evolving beyond refreshment towards wellness support
- Graph 3: % of packaged drink launches featuring different claim categories, 2021-26
-
MAPPING GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS THE WELLNESS LANDSCAPE
- Core wellness drives volume today, while lifestyle wellness offers the next wave of growth
- Graph 4: consumer interest (%) in seeking health benefits in packaged non-alcoholic drinks, by % of launches of packaged drinks featuring the benefits, 2024-26
- Reinvent core wellness and expand into emerging wellness spaces
- Refreshing core wellness for continued relevance and growth
- The next era of functional energy requires new tools
- Now: seize the creatine energy opportunity in packaged drinks
- Graph 5: interest in trying packaged drink products with creatine as an ingredient, 2026
- Bring creatine into convenient, everyday beverage formats
- Unlock new occasions by softening creatine’s sports-first image
- Now: gut health’s growing role in holistic wellbeing creates new opportunities for drinks
- Microbiome-focused ingredients are gaining ground in India
- Graph 6: interest in trying packaged drink products with prebiotics and probiotics as ingredients, by consumers interested in digestive/gut health in packaged drink products, 2026
- Graph 7: % of launches of packaged drinks claiming digestive health with select ingredients, 2021-26
- Now: bridge microbiome science with mainstream beverage appeal
- Now: strengthen core wellness in combination with energy and hydration
- Next: differentiate with synbiotics and functional stacking
- Now: immunity is a key wellness driver, with scope to expand beyond nutritional drinks
- Graph 8: % of packaged drink launches claiming immunity benefit, by category, 2024-26
- Immunity innovation blends scientific credibility with natural wellness cues
- Graph 9: % of packaged drink launches claiming immunity benefit, by ingredient featured, 2025-26
- Now: connect ingredients to outcomes consumers can easily grasp
- Ingredient spotlight: moringa offers a familiar route to immunity innovation
- Graph 10: % of packaged drinks claiming immunity that feature moringa leaf as an ingredient, 2021-26
- Now: leverage rising protein aspirations to make core wellness more desirable
- Now: differentiate wellness propositions with evidence-backed efficacy
- Navigating the next phase of wellness-led drink innovation
- Next: untapped lifestyle wellness spaces offer room for premium innovation
- Graph 11: select health benefits that would motivate consumption of packaged drink products, 2026
- Focusing on beauty-from-within offers new innovation opportunities in packaged drinks
- Graph 12: agreement with select statements about beauty, 2025
- Leverage familiar beauty ingredients to drive engagement
- Graph 13: interest in trying select ingredients in packaged drinks, 2026
- Pair beauty credentials with familiar beverage rituals
- Future: elevate beauty drinks through longevity-led science
- Unlock growth by embedding weight management benefits into everyday drinks
- Graph 14: weight management as a benefit that would motivate consumption of packaged drink products, 2026
- Strengthen weight management positioning with science-backed, multifunctional ingredient blends
- Next: the GLP-1 revolution opens new pathways for beverage innovation
- Everyday stress creates demand for beverages focused on relaxing
- Graph 15: perception of day-to-day stress level, 2025
- Graph 16: stress relief/relaxation as a benefit that would motivate consumption of packaged drink products, 2026
- Consumer appetite extends beyond herbs, creating headroom for scientific actives like magnesium
- Graph 17: interest in trying select ingredients in packaged drinks, 2026
- Graph 18: % of packaged drink launches claiming stress/sleep benefit, by ingredient featured, 2025-26
- Sleep associations make magnesium a credible next frontier in stress-support drinks
- Ashwagandha provides a trusted foundation for more differentiated and holistic stress-support innovation
- Future: the focus on healthy ageing creates opportunities to deliver multiple wellness outcomes
- Graph 19: healthy ageing/longevity as a benefit that would motivate consumption of packaged drink products, 2026
- Graph 20: aspects of health respondents are most likely to improve or maintain while getting older, 2026
- Spotlight healthy ageing while grounding it in tangible consumer benefits
-
DECODING MODERN HYDRATION: MAPPING CONSUMPTION MOMENTS AND FORMATS
- Hydration is becoming a mainstream consumer priority in India
- Graph 21: Google search interest over time for select term, 2021-26
- Graph 22: non-alcoholic drink* launches featuring hydration benefit**, 2021-26
- The rise of intentional hydration is creating new opportunities in packaged drinks
- Multiple hydration jobs emerge as reactive and proactive needs coexist
- Graph 23: agreement with select statements about hydration, 2026
- Diverse hydration occasions require different formats
- Hydration formats occupy different roles in consumers’ minds
- Unlock growth by aligning format strengths with hydration needs
- Elevate everyday hydration with powder mixes using rapid replenishment and enjoyment
- Expand hydration occasions through functional layering
- Build on powders’ sports hydration equity with performance and recovery benefits
- Recovery-focused positioning establishes trust in the effervescent format
- Build a tiered portfolio that addresses everyday wellbeing in addition to recovery using effervescent solutions
- Elevate RTD hydration beyond heat relief through broader wellbeing benefits
- Mintel Spark merges hydration, cooling and beauty needs in a single RTD proposition
- Build a stronger link between hydration and athletic performance through gels
- Next: reimagine hydration delivery for modern lifestyles
- Future: design hydration solutions around how consumers live, feel and interact with their environment
- Key takeaways
-
APPENDIX
- Report definition
- Consumer survey methodology
- Correspondence analysis
Functional drinks are gaining relevance as consumers adopt more proactive approaches to health. Growing interest in active living, healthy ageing and everyday wellbeing is encouraging consumers to seek beverages that deliver benefits beyond refreshment. This shift is reflected in innovation activity, with functional, plus and minus claims becoming increasingly prevalent across packaged drinks.
While energy, immunity and digestive health continue to anchor the category, emerging spaces such as beauty, stress relief and healthy ageing offer new avenues for growth. This Report maps opportunities across the wellness landscape, identifying the benefits, ingredients and innovation territories that have the greatest potential to drive future relevance and differentiation.
It also explores hydration’s evolution into a multifunctional wellness platform, examining how format-occasion associations can help brands expand usage occasions and unlock new innovation opportunities.
This report looks at the following areas:
- Demand for healthier packaged drinks and launch activity
- Mapping growth opportunities across the wellness landscape – with a focus on benefit spaces and emerging ingredients in packaged drinks
- Refreshing core wellness for continued relevance and growth – with a focus on energy, gut health and immunity
- Navigating the next phase of wellness-led drink innovation – with a focus on beauty, weight management, stress relief and healthy ageing
- Decoding modern hydration: mapping consumption moments and formats
Functional drinks will evolve beyond core benefits, with lifestyle wellness and occasion-led hydration emerging as key growth frontiers.
Anamika Banerji, Senior Research Analyst – Food and Drink, India
Market Definitions
Functional drinks encompass packaged, non-alcoholic beverages across multiple categories (eg juice, tea, RTD tea and coffee, energy & sports drinks, nutritional drinks, carbonated drinks, dairy drinks, flavoured water) that make one or more added health benefit claims (eg energy, immunity, gut health).
These include RTD as well as powder and liquid concentrate formats.
£ 2,195 (Excl.Tax)
- Pay via credit card or invoice
-
PDF, PPT and Excel download delivered instantly
Instant delivery when paying by credit card, invoice orders may take longer
-
Save up to 20% when you purchase multiple reports
Save 10% when you purchase two reports together.
Save 15% when you purchase three reports together.
Save 20% when your purchase four or more together.
Discount automatically applied at checkout
Need help before you buy?
Our research specialists can answer your questions and recommend the reports that best match your business needs.
Contact usTrusted by global industry leaders
We utilize Mintel Reports, Trends and Comperemedia to mine for insights across the numerous business verticals that Epsilon serves, such as CPG, automotive, telecom, healthcare/pharma, retail and financial services.
By integrating Mintel insight into new business opportunities, we have been able to gain the competitive edge necessary to advance partnerships with global brands and key business players.
For our organization, it’s about depth and breadth. Having one without the other doesn’t enable success in our business.
Virginia Harvey, Secondary Research Manager, Epsilon
When I’m investigating specific sectors I tend to use Mintel reports for their forecasting, which I’ve always found to be very accurate.
They also offer really broad and deep coverage in their reports. They are very, very detailed. For example, we were able to gain insight across a wide range of business areas from just one report, proving that Mintel is excellent value for money.
So overall, it’s the level of detail and the quality of forecasting that really stand out for me.
Rebecca Green, Market Insight Manager, Wincanton
Working in a customer-obsessed organization means that data and insights have to be at our fingertips. Mintel’s reports help us support anecdotes with real quantifiable insights. The summary sections (which I really like) helps save time by giving a birds eye view of the content before spending time combing through the pages.
Our business review discussions are strengthened by the relevancy of the reports to help us better understand our customers. In addition, the customer service received from the team (especially in crunch periods) makes the process of understanding customer behavior even better.
Ngozi Ngonadi-Nkwoji, Senior Marketing Manager, Amazon
There is no question that Mintel is the go-to resource for the best quality market research, but I did not think it was an affordable option for Abacus Marketing to consider. As a small marketing agency, we only work with a few new clients each year.
However, we have a very high-end consultative approach to our work, so we really do need a partner like Mintel to provide the big agency experience we are always aiming to deliver. Our clients come from an incredibly diverse range of industry sectors, so we obviously need access to market research reports from a very wide spectrum of marketplaces – and that is precisely what we got.
Stephen Taylor-Brown, Managing Director, Abacus
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
Pauline Robson, Managing Partner, Mediacom
Need help before you buy?
Our research specialists can answer your questions and recommend the reports that best match your business needs.
Contact us
