The Multi-Generational Kitchen: How To Market Plant-Based Eating To Indian Gen Z Households
Background
India has a deep history regarding meat-eating practices due to religious teachings about which foods to eat, thereby attracting particular interest from animal advocacy organizations. For example, variations of meat restrictions exist in all widely-practiced religions in India, including Hinduism (beef restrictions), Jainism (restriction on all meat), Islam (pork restrictions), and Christianity (restriction on some meat). Jains are more likely to restrict meat consumption (97%), followed by Hindus (83%), Muslims (67%), and Christians (66%). Overall, 81% of Indians restrict meat intake in some way.
Indeed, India has the highest rate of vegetarianism worldwide (26–30%), and is one of the countries with the highest rate of veganism (estimated between 9–14%). However, there is mixed evidence that vegetarianism in India is due to an animal welfare/rights motivation, with the few existing surveys on Indian attitudes towards animals finding high or low pro-animal attitudes and beliefs.
Instead, religion and caste are the main determining factors of vegetarianism in India. Hinduism is the most-practiced religion in India, with 80% of adults identifying as Hindu. “Upper”-caste Hindus are more likely to be vegetarian (53%) compared to “lower”-caste Hindus (43%). Nonetheless, “upper”-caste Hindu vegetarianism is focused on notions of purity and therefore perceives meat-eating, especially beef consumption, as “polluting” one’s body. These purity norms have historically been used to reinforce caste hierarchies, marginalizing lower-caste and minority communities whose food practices don’t conform — branding their traditional diets as “immoral” and providing a cultural justification for social exclusion and discrimination. Consequently, vegetarianism in India can carry negative connotations; some view these dietary restrictions as a way to maintain traditional caste hierarchies rather than fostering a genuine concern for animal welfare.
Furthermore, India is the world’s leading producer of milk and is also one of the largest exporters of beef. Despite intensifying animal agriculture in India, most Indian adults are unaware of standard practices and misunderstand the term “vegan.” Lack of awareness may also be the reason why most animal advocacy campaigns in India focus on increasing awareness of farmed animal welfare issues.
Relatedly, animal product consumption has grown substantially in India, especially among young adults — the latter likely due to young adults viewing traditional practices as outdated and having more autonomy to eat meat when living away from home. However, a recent study found willingness to go vegan in India was highest in the 18- to 24-year-old group. Not to mention, animal advocacy in India is largely youth-driven and targeted at younger adults.
Given that Gen Z (those born roughly between 1997–2012) Indians make up almost 25% of the country’s population and that living with families is a common practice, this study focused on Gen Z young adults in India who currently live with their parents to better understand household food dynamics. Such research will help inform marketing and communication strategies aimed at positioning plant-based products in ways that resonate with these households.
We therefore asked 801 Gen Z Indians about how household food decisions are made, what motivates their food choices, their openness towards plant-based eating, and their perceived barriers towards plant-based eating, among other outcomes.
Key Findings
- Gen Z Indians who live at home are pro-vegan, with most respondents being meat-reducers. In our survey of 801 Gen Z adults (18- to 28-year-olds) living with their parents in India, 58% identified as a type of meat-reducer (e.g., vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, or reducetarian). Only 42% self-identified as an omnivore, and half were open to going vegan. That is, 50% of participants who aren’t already vegan said they were “likely,” “very likely,” or “extremely likely” to go vegan in the next year, and 53% believed their parents were likely to do the same.
- The biggest barrier to eating a plant-based diet among Gen Z participants was simply needing more information about plant-based diets (59%), while the least common barrier was worrying about their family perceiving it as abandoning their culture for a “Western” vegan diet (37%). Other common barriers included viewing dairy as a core part of one’s cultural identity (54%), needing to go food shopping more often (53%), personal health concerns (other than iron or protein: 52%), and believing there wouldn’t be enough choice when dining out (52%).
- We identified three distinct groups of Gen Z Indian consumers: Indifferent consumers (Segment 1 — 46% of participants) may be the most difficult group to change, followed by constrained consumers (Segment 2 — 33%), while game-changer consumers (Segment 3 — 22%) were the most open to plant-based eating.
- Indifferent consumers: They had the lowest control over household decisions, were the least motivated, and were the least likely to go vegan.
- Constrained consumers: They faced the most barriers to switching to a plant-based diet despite being motivated to do so.
- Game-changers: They were the most likely to go vegan, faced the fewest barriers, and scored the highest for the food choice motives of taste, health, and animal welfare and environmental protection. However, game-changers also scored significantly higher, on average, than the other segments for the plant-based enablers of capability and motivation, suggesting that equipping them with the right practical tools will be especially high-impact, given their existing motivation.
- Game-changers have a distinct sociodemographic profile compared to the other consumer segments. Game-changers had significantly more women, people with a Bachelor’s degree, people belonging to a General Category caste, and those earning more than ₹50,000 per year (though income findings should be interpreted with caution — see Caveats & Limitations) compared to the other two segments. Game-changers were also significantly older than indifferent consumers, had significantly more full-time workers than indifferent consumers, and marginally more Hindus than indifferent consumers.
- Less than half of Gen Z individuals who live with their parents in India have high or total control over household food decisions (e.g., deciding what food is bought), ranging between 44% and 48%, depending on the particular decision. When asked about who in the family is primarily responsible for different food-related tasks, 40% of Gen Z individuals said that they were mainly responsible for grocery shopping, but their mothers were primarily responsible for cooking (57%) and meal-planning (39%). Gen Z participants and their mothers also tended to have more influence than their father for deciding what to buy (30% and 31% versus 13%, respectively). In contrast, managing the household food budget appeared more evenly distributed with 28% of Gen Z individuals being mainly responsible for it, followed by the father (26%), and mother (21%).
- Health and taste ranked the highest for food choice motivations. On a scale from 1 (does not apply at all) to 6 (completely applies), health and taste had the highest average scores (Avg = 4.4), while animal welfare and environmental protection scored an average of 4, meaning these motivations were “moderately” important for our Gen Z participants. Moreover, the social pressure scale also averaged around the midpoint (Avg = 4.4 on a scale from 1 to 7), indicating that Gen Z individuals in our sample were “moderately” influenced by friends, family, health experts, colleagues, and romantic partners regarding their diet.
- The household dynamic of our Gen Z sample was fairly harmonious: only 26% of participants frequently disagreed with their family about food, and 59% said it was easy to discuss food choices with their family. Indeed, when food disagreements occurred, 60% of participants said they came to a resolution afterwards. The most common reason for disagreement was health or dietary preferences (52%).
Recommendations
For Advocates
- Frame veganism as an inclusive, intersectional social justice movement grounded in public health, environmental sustainability, ethics, and animal welfare, while avoiding associations with caste-based purity politics. Prior research on the Indian advocacy landscape has found that vegetarianism is often linked to “upper”-caste notions of purity, which can make veganism appear politically conservative or regressive by association. These findings provide further context: game-changers, who represent the group most open to plant-based eating, were predominantly General Category and high-income earners. This suggests that exclusionary messaging may inadvertently limit advocacy to those already inclined toward change while distancing others. To prevent these backfire effects, outreach should emphasize widely resonant and accessible motivations (e.g., taste, health, and concern for farmed animals and the environment), while highlighting low-cost, culturally familiar plant-based foods like legumes and pulses. An intersectional framing that centers benefits for people, animals, and the planet can appeal to highly receptive groups (Gen Z “game-changers”) without alienating others, and help reposition veganism as both socially progressive and accessible.
- Collaborate with local organizations to develop inclusive campaigns. Advocates might engage with groups such as the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, India Karuna Collaborative, One Just World, Redefining Ahimsa, Samayu, and Veganuary India. Partnering with these groups can help ensure that outreach is culturally sensitive and resonates with diverse Indian audiences.
- Educate Gen Z Indians on the health benefits of plant-based diets and provide practical information on plant-based grocery shopping and dining out to overcome common barriers. Four of the five primary barriers identified in our sample centered on a general lack of information regarding vegan diets, along with concerns about overall health, grocery shopping, and dining out. Indeed, vegan advocacy in India mostly focuses on building awareness of issues rather than teaching people how to go vegan. Taken together, this suggests that advocates could create “how-to” materials targeting Gen Z adults in different cities that have a list of restaurants and vendors with vegan foods, as well as practical and culturally-relevant recipe ideas that tell people what to shop for in grocery stores. For example, advocates can consider collaborating with Happy Cow, a digital platform that currently provides directories of restaurants and vendors with vegan options.
- Frame plant-based cooking and recipes as collaborative, tasty, and healthy for the entire family. Given Gen Z’s harmonious family dynamics, advocates can provide scripts to help Gen Z adults influence household food decisions towards plant-based options. These scripts should emphasize family values and health, considering how the mother plays a large role in cooking. For example, Gen Z adults could share veganized recipes of traditional dishes with their mother that emphasizes the health and taste aspect of the dish. Such recipes could start with soya chap, as most Gen Z participants already eat it, indicating that Gen Z mothers are likely familiar with cooking it, which can reduce entry barriers to plant-based cooking.
- One promising strategy is to collaborate with health experts and fitness influencers to promote plant-based eating on their personal social media channels. Researchers have argued that leveraging celebrity or social influencer endorsements can help spread the message of veganism in India given its collectivist culture. In our study, health experts scored the highest out of all peers, on average, for influencing Gen Z participants’ diets. Further, game-changers and constrained consumers scored similarly high for social pressure in general, meaning that they care what others around them think when it comes to their diet, particularly health experts. Moreover, most social media posts by animal advocates in India have low viewership. Thus, asking health experts or fitness influencers to post on their own social media pages may increase reach among non-animal advocate audiences.
- Use different social media influencers to target constrained consumers and game-changers. The demographics differed between these two segments, which may warrant different social appeals: Game-changers were more likely to be female, and constrained consumers were more likely to be right-wing. For example, advocates should consider testing messaging that resonates most strongly with politically conservative groups, focusing on themes like health, food sovereignty, or national pride. In addition, collaborating with vegan influencers from underrepresented religious (e.g., Islam) or caste (e.g., Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe) groups could help avoid reinforcing harmful social hierarchies of vegetarianism/veganism in India.
- Target the dairy industry specifically. Campaigns that just target meat-eating, especially beef, will likely be received negatively because of religious politics denoting meat-eaters as “lower-caste” or “inferior.” Given that dairy is heavily celebrated in India, and how its connection to cultural identity was the second-most common barrier to plant-based eating in our sample, advocates should continue campaigning against dairy. However, messaging tactics that promote dairy alternatives should reassure Gen Z Indians that such alternatives are still aligned with their cultural identity and can easily be substituted in traditional dishes. This might also involve collaborations with alternative protein companies, so that they can market dairy alternative products more effectively in India, especially considering how India ranks as the fifth-leading country for alternative animal product companies in the world. Here, cultural identity refers to food traditions, family rituals, and national heritage — not religious belief — and messaging should reflect that distinction.
For Alternative Protein Companies
- Promote alternative dairy products as a type of “traditional” protein instead of “dairy-free.” Despite around half of our sample already regularly or occasionally consuming plant-based ghee, yogurt, milk, and cheese products, viewing dairy as a core part of one’s cultural identity was the second top barrier to plant-based eating. Assuring Gen Z Indians that dairy alternatives are still aligned with their culture could help create more plant-based dairy consumers.
- Use imagery or commercials involving multi-generational families bonding over plant-based dairy alternatives together. This would help counter perceptions that veganism and plant-based alternative products are a “Western” idea, and showcase how alternative substitutes can easily be used in traditional cultural dishes.
Applying These Findings
This report can be used to help tailor messaging to Gen Z Indians to encourage them to make plant-based household food decisions and/or to help identify which interventions may be most effective in engaging Gen Z Indians. To these ends, here are some additional resources from Faunalytics:
Animal Advocacy In India
- Food Systems Advocacy In The Global South: A Framework And Pilot In India
- Beliefs About Fishes and Chickens & Their Relation to Animal-Positive Behaviors in India
- Attitudes Toward Farmed Animals In The BRIC Countries
- Animal Sentience And Suffering: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
- Vegan Advocacy In India
- Perspectives On India’s Animal Advocacy
- Indians Say They Don’t Eat Meat, But Many Still Do
- Behind Closed Doors: Animal Protection Investigations In India
- Unpacking Animal-Based Food Transitions In India
- The Market Potential Of Meat Alternatives In India
- Plant-Based and Clean Meat in the USA, India, and China
Gen Z
- Exploring Gen Z’s Attitudes Towards Animals And The Environment
- Young Peoples’ Environmental Concern Drives Demand For Plant-Based Meat
We understand that reports like this have a lot of information to consider and that acting on research can be challenging. Faunalytics is happy to offer pro bono support to advocates and nonprofit organizations who would like guidance applying these findings to their own work. Please visit our virtual Office Hours or contact us for support.
Behind The Project
Research Team
The project’s lead author was Dr. Andrea Polanco (Faunalytics). Dr. Allison Troy (Faunalytics) reviewed and oversaw the work.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our deep appreciation to the advocates who contributed valuable cultural perspectives and carefully reviewed this research to ensure cultural sensitivity, including Richa Mehta (Vegan Outreach), Anita Rajan (Impactful Giving), and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations.
In addition, we are grateful to Faunalytics’ donors for your support — your donations allow us to conduct essential research like this to help you take action for animals.
Research Terminology
At Faunalytics, we strive to make research accessible to everyone. We avoid jargon and technical terminology as much as possible in our reports. If you do encounter an unfamiliar term or phrase, check out the Faunalytics Glossary for user-friendly definitions and examples.
Research Ethics Statement
As with all of Faunalytics’ original research, this study was conducted according to the standards outlined in our Research Ethics and Data Handling Policy.
Generative AI Statement
Data analysis: ChatGPT was used for assistance in creating R code for data analysis. Final code was checked and verified for accuracy by the authors.
Report editing: This report was written by Andrea Polanco with editing and support from Allison Troy. We also used Gemini and Claude as a grammatical editing tool for writing, but not to generate information. All language in this report was reviewed and checked for accuracy by the authors.
Let us know what you think!
We conduct research to help advocates like you, so we really value your input on what we’re doing well and how we can do better. Take the brief (less than 2min) survey below to let us know how satisfied you were with this report.
Citations:
Polanco, A., & Troy, A. (2026). The Multi-Generational Kitchen: How To Market Plant-Based Eating To Indian Gen Z Households. Faunalytics. https://faunalytics.org/plant-based-india-gen-z/
