From festive treats to bowl meals, India’s love affair with food continued to blossom this year. With record-breaking orders for certain dishes (on Swiggy), Indian foodies have declared their very own National Food Days! Swiggy is unveiling the country’s ever-evolving gastronomical preferences this past year through its third annual order analysis report- StatEATistics 2018.
Here’s a peak into what the country has been ordering in (on Swiggy), in 2018. While there are some obvious similarities between the cities, there are also some striking differences!
Note: Swiggy’s order analysis is based on millions of orders Swiggy received on its platform. The analysis is for the period between Dec 2017- Nov 2018.
What India ordered in 2018 from Swiggy:
1. 2018- Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai were in the pink of health.
Did you know that more and more people in India are taking conscious efforts towards mindful eating? This includes ordering-in planned, healthy and single-serve meals along with embracing eco-friendly packaging options. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai are the top three cities when it comes to ordering the healthiest food online.
Juices like watermelon, mosambi, pineapple and orange are preferred choices for healthy items across India; Roasted chicken and Fruit salad are often ordered in cities like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune.
Not surprisingly, on weekdays, Indians watched their calorie intake by ordering more healthy food compared to weekends. Fruit juices were consumed five times more than aerated drinks.
2. Predicting those hunger pangs- Indians plan their meals
Bengaluru and Hyderabad along with Kolkata were the best planners when it comes to their meals.
The cities ordered their meals up to 36 hours in advance using Swiggy Scheduled. Top pre-ordered dishes across the country included Chicken Biryani, Masala Dosa, and Paneer Butter Masala. South Indian meals and mini-meals are some of the top items that Indians eat regularly and hence are planning in advance.
3. National Food Days
Food lovers declared their own national food days for 2018 by ordering record-breaking numbers of their favourites on these days!
4. FEAStivals – festivals and food
This festive season, Indians added more flavour to their celebrations. 2018 saw Indians increasingly turn to ordering in their festive fares while choosing to spend some quality time with their loved ones.
During the festive season, desi dishes continued to rule the roost during the festive season. Durga Puja saw an increase in orders for Mishti Doi and Kalakand, while Butter Chicken, Hyderabadi
Biryani and Haleem saw a massive spike in orders during Eid.
Furthermore, while popular items like Laddu and Karanji saw a whopping 400 per cent increase during Ganesh Chaturthi, the sales of Gujia increased nearly 10 times in the week of Holi.
5. IPL Food Mania
Food and edge-of the seat entertainment is a match made in foodie heaven. This IPL, shareable items like Pizza, French fries, and ice-creams witnessed a whopping 50 per cent increase in orders, as compared to the previous year.
6. Biryani, the comfort food of the nation
There was a whopping 681 per cent increase in biryani orders (on Swiggy) this year! Third year in a row, India continues its love affair with Chicken Biryani. The delectable-dish remains the most ordered food item all-round the year, as well as a favorite during festivals, lunches, dinners and even during snack time. This is closely followed by Chicken Fried Rice.
7. Bowl meals
A bowl meal is a layered and compact dish with all food components packed together in a convenient bowl-shaped vessel. Even making an appearance at the royal wedding, bowl meals witnessed maximum number of orders from Bengaluru stealing the show from last year’s leader Hyderabad, which slipped to third position this year. While most of the bowl meals in Bengaluru are eaten for dinner; Chennai on second position orders for them during lunch time.
8. 2018: greens on the rise?
There has been a considerable surge in the number of people ordering in vegetarian food. Compared to last year’s 43 per cent, 62 per cent of the orders across the country were vegetarian, with Ahmedabad topping the list for most veg dishes. On the other hand, Bengaluru ordered the most chicken dishes followed by Hyderabad.
9. Food for one, please!
Delivered in 30 to 35 minutes, single-serve meals meet the needs of the time-pressed millennials most of whom might be living alone and need hassle-free meals that serve one person. A closer look at the top dishes under Swiggy POP reveals that people in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Delhi placed the highest number of orders. Mumbai and Bengaluru are gorging on the top dishes with single-serve meals of Chicken Biryani, Chicken Kheema with Kulcha and Veg Thali. Bowls being the most commonly ordered items in this category, some of the popular ones are: Zaffrani Chicken Biryani Bowl, Butter Chicken Rice Bowl and Chicken Tikka Rice Bowl amongst others.
10. Happy tummy= Happy new year
As the country slipped into a festive mood towards the end of the year, the last three months saw a spike in the number of Indians ordering online (on Swiggy).