Honestly, strolling through a supermarket aisle is giving first-date vibes these days. Every snack is sitting there, all shiny, full of promise. Every packet, box and label is playing up health, flavour, authenticity, tradition, nutrition, some discount. Are the claims legit? Is there more fibre in the cardboard box or the food inside? Who can tell?
Event Context
See @CheatDayDesign’s viral Reel, in which he makes a regular can of cola look like a health drink with just a few tweaks: Elongate the can, replace the red with bright orange, add sunrise imagery to the background, rebrand with a healthy-sounding name such as Thrive, describe it as sparkling beverage… And it immediately looks smarter, healthier, even though it’s the same swill inside.
That makeover formula applies to nearly all processed foods. Labels display gleaming strawberries even though the flavouring came from a lab. Minimalist labels make brands look more sophisticated. Wholesome rustic grannies serve as mascots for mass-manufactured stuff no actual granny ever made. Oh, and Baked, Not Fried calls out like a choir of angels even if the crunchies contain six grams of sugar.
Here’s how to decode food-packaging design. Warning: There’s art and maths involved.
Check the vibe. Lays recently gave their chips packs a makeover. Out went the loud colours. Now it’s all muted tones, wooden textures. Even the potatoes look hand-peeled. It’s like the halo light is on – everything seems soft, comforting, real, artisanal. Look for empty words too: Breadsticks that contain olive oil? It doesn’t detract from the other problematic fillers that also went into the recipe. Protein content played up on the yoghurt drink? It’s to detract from the high sugar content in there. A label saying it’s ‘Made With Real Grains’? Wait. There’s no such thing as fake grains; they’re advertising nothing. Low sodium? Sounds great, but it’s still a lot of salt on a handful of almonds.
“Most consumers aren’t standing in a grocery aisle comparing nutrient percentages,” says Tiya Sharma, 22, a consumer behaviour psychologist in New Delhi. “They’re shopping after work, thinking about dinner and trying to get home. That’s when these shortcuts become especially powerful.” The brain uses heuristics, or shortcuts, to make quick decisions.
Look for the pick-me. Packaging is designed to stand out and impress. Sugar-heavy cold brew comes in luxurious frosted glass bottles. Muesli, stuffed with sugar and grains, comes wrapped in craft paper so it seems like it was handmade, in small batches, with care, in someone’s kitchen. While glossy finishes are often perceived to be mass-market and oily; matte packaging, handwriting, jute textures and domestic imagery all evoke the sense of a trusted farmers’ market, rather than the impersonal white lights of a departmental store.
Player Focus
“Act II popcorn is loud, bold and can be found in kirana stores, while 4700BC’s matte finish and UV lettering are designed for the structured arrangement of supermarket aisles,” says Anushka Dabholkar, 28, who works as an assistant brand manager in Mumbai.
Team Analysis
See the true colours. Soft greens signal nature and wellness (as with Maggi Atta noodles). Yellow is for vitality (as with Milkybar). For indulgence, it’s often rich purple (those bars of Silk chocolate). Pay attention to the brand names too: Nature’s Valley, Green Giant, Mother’s Recipe, Annie’s Homegrown and Wild Harvest conjure images of farms and family-run businesses. Simple, geometric sans-serif fonts (SuperYou, Epigamia) give off the sense that they’re no-nonsense, no-fuss. Many brands let you see the product inside through a little transparent window to seem more legit.
Match Outlook
Stay focused. You could turn every product over, read all the ingredients, work out how many calories are coming from carb and sugar, and how much fibre or minerals are actually in every packet. Or you could skip the aisle entirely, and wean yourself off over-processed foods.
Online crusaders such as @FoodPharmer, @Glucose_Gal and @Trustified.in have been holding mass-market brands to account. Some of it has worked. Bournvita cut its sugar content and introduced a zero-sugar variant, Kwality Wall’s will now replace vegetable-fat frozen desserts with milk-based ice cream, and The Whole Truth Foods admitted to using date extract and removed its “No Added Sugar” claim. As with the dating scene, don’t commit until you’ve done your sleuthing and looked beyond the spiel.
From HT Brunch, July 25, 2026
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Tall, slender packs are associated with fitness, lightness and fewer calories; imperfect shapes suggest handmade wholesomeness; and wide-mouthed jars evoke farm produce. Founder signatures, family crests and nostalgic storytelling are all part of the illusion. “Some brands build a family-business story around an ‘ajji’, ‘nana’ or ‘made by moms’ narrative,” says Kolkata-based Revant Himatsingka (@FoodPharmer), 34. A brand will use every hack it can to appeal to a buyer. Dead founders are roped in to sell legacy. Small-town origins are meant to signify a simpler time. The product may well be flash-fried in an industrial vat and nitrogen packed via machine. But on the label, none of that shows.
Get out the calculator. Himatsingka recalls meeting a child whose mother had stopped serving rotis for dinner, swapping them out with Maggi Atta noodles because the pack claimed it contained the fibre of three rotis.
Watch out for % signs. A brand often plays up one quantity (30% less fat) without telling you if it’s less than its competitor or less than the brand’s previous formula, or what is being used as a substitute. A juice with ‘No Added Sugar’ simply means that the existing fruit content is sweet enough to do damage. And plenty of labels play up the boost: More energy, more milk, more flavour, more Vitamin C – very little of which has to do with the food as much as the additives.
