India Food Stats

The next time you grab a pack of Bingo potato chips , get ready for a mini detective mission! 🕵️‍♂️  The ingredients list says 'Edible Vegetable Oil' (because who doesn't love a surprise?), but to crack the actual oil code, you need to play match-the-symbol with your batch number. Look for that ^ or ^^ printed near the batch code – one means refined palmolein, the other refined rice bran oil. It's like the manufacturer turned the label into a puzzle book.  Images: OpenFoodFacts.org The saturated fat content can vary between 3.2g to 16.6g per 100g based on which type of oil has been used. Pro tip: Keep your eyes peeled before munching – knowledge is power (and sometimes it's palmolein).

One of the unexpected joys of contributing to Open Food Facts is the sense of discovery. You start by fixing a missing field or cleaning up a label and suddenly you’ve stumbled onto something new. The real gems for me are products that are not ultra-processed, the NOVA 1–3 kind. Today, while cleaning up incomplete entries in OFF India, I came across something simple but exciting. Our first listing for butter beans, also known locally as double beans . What stood out was the label. It wasn’t just in English which is typical but also in Tamil, a nice glimpse into local food culture.  It was also fun comparing our humble Indian Butter Beans with its cousins from around the world . A small database entry, but a reminder of how food and culture connect globally . And guess what? Despite the dangerously delicious name "Butter Beans", they’re actually super low in fat, under 1 g of fat per 100g cooked. The "butter" in the name is purely because of their rich, velvety, melt...

Food companies often update their recipes to improve taste, cost, shelf life, or nutrition. Sometimes they make small changes to the ingredients while keeping the same barcode and product name. This can confuse customers who expect the exact same formula every time. A good example is Alpino Super Oats Chocolate (Barcode: 8906127551086). Label showing ingredients in March 2026 Here’s what changed between the old and new version:   Aspect Old Formula ( 2024 ) New Formula ( 2026 ) Rolled Oats 61% 61% Unsweetened Peanut Butter 26% 22% Protein Source Alpino Supernatural Peanut Protein Textured Soya Protein (9%) Nuts & Seed Mix Chia Seeds, Almonds, Raisins, Sunflower Seeds Almond, Raisin, Sunflower Seeds (no chia) Cocoa Powder Yes Yes Monk Fruit Extract Yes Yes ...

In Indian kitchens, most of us instinctively reach for that familiar-looking 1-litre pouch of cooking oil, expecting exactly one litre inside. However, many popular cooking oil brands now sell their products in pouches that look very similar to the standard 1-litre size, but actually contain slightly less oil — often 850 ml, 900 ml, or 950 ml. Some brands use tall, slim bottles to create a visual illusion and make 850g of oil look identical to a 1L bottle on a crowded supermarket shelf. This is psychological pricing in action. Consumers are very sensitive to a price jump from say ₹145 to ₹160. They are much less sensitive to the weight dropping from 910g to 850g if the price stays at ₹145. This practice, sometimes called “shrinkflation” or “non-standard sizing,” has become increasingly common in recent years. While the pack design, shape, and branding make the pouch appear almost identical to a full 1-litre pack, the actual volume printed on the label is smaller. For the average buye...

If you’ve ever ordered sambar at an Indian restaurant and thought, “Wait… this tastes different every time,” this chart is your official “aha!” moment. The cheeky title “Your sambar is not so same-bar” says it all: the same comforting South Indian lentil-vegetable stew gets a totally different personality depending on which Indian State is cooking it. Instead of boring numbers, the chart uses coloured blocks where the size + shade shows exactly how often each ingredient pops up in real recipes from that state. Quick sambar 101 Sambar is a tangy, spicy, soupy stew made with lentils (usually toor dal/pigeon peas), loads of vegetables, and a signature spice blend. It’s the ultimate sidekick to idli, dosa, vada, or rice across South India.  Think of it as India’s answer to a hearty vegetable chowder—with attitude. What this chart actually shows Surbhi Bhatia has created an ingredient heatmap using 43 real recipes from popular Indian cooking websites.  Rows = five states (Tamil Na...