Future diets in India: A systematic review of food consumption projection studies

Abstract

Against a backdrop of a rapidly changing food system and a growing population, characterisation of likely future diets in India can help to inform agriculture and health policies. We systematically searched six published literature databases and grey literature repositories up to January 2018 for studies projecting the consumption of foods in India to time points beyond 2018. The 11 identified studies reported on nine foods up to 2050: the available evidence suggests projected increases in per capita consumption of vegetables, fruit and dairy products, and little projected change in cereal (rice and wheat) and pulse consumption. Meat consumption is projected to remain low. Understanding and mitigating the impacts of projected dietary changes in India is important to protect public health and the environment.

Keywords: Food consumption; Food projections; Future diets; India.

Fig. 1

PRISMA chart showing the numbers of studies at each stage of the search.

Fig. 2

Overview of future direct consumption trends in India from selected studies in the review. Legend numbers correspond to reference numbers of the studies. *consumption data not obtained from NSSO.

Fig. 3

Comparison of diets in India in 2012 and projected diets in 2025–26.*2012 values are mean consumption for adults aged 16–59 years calculated from results of 68th NSSO round (25). Error bars represent 95% confidence interval. **2025–26 consumption represents the mean of selected of studies included in this review that project to this time point. Error bars represent upper and lower range of the data where more than one value available for each food group.