India binged on biryani in 2021; a fried snack was favourite: Swiggy report

Samosas ordered were equal to New Zealand's population; gulab jamun was the most preferred dessert.

Indians this year ordered 115 biryanis per minute, samosas equal to New Zealand’s population, and enough tomatoes to play the Spanish Tomatina festival for eleven years, according to an annual report by online food delivery company Swiggy.

The StatEATstics report analysed millions of orders received by Swiggy for food, grocery on Instamart, drop service Swiggy Genie and HealthHub between January and December 2021.

Biryani was the top dish: getting more than 5.5 crore orders this year compared to 3.5 crore in 2020. Samosa was the most binged snack of the year, getting about 5 million orders.

Pav Bhaji was India’s second favourite snack with 2.1 million orders. After 10 pm, Indians look to satiate their food cravings with cheese-garlic bread, popcorn, and French fries.

With 2.1 million orders, gulab jamun was the most ordered dessert on Swiggy. Rasmalai came second, with 1.27 million orders.

In 2021, India ordered 115 biryanis per minute, or 2 per second. Chicken biryani was ordered 4.3 times more than its vegetarian version.

Over 4.25 lakh new users made their Swiggy debut by ordering chicken biryani. While the dish topped the charts in Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Hyderabad, Mumbai ordered twice as many dal khichidis compared to chicken biryani.

The search for healthy food on Swiggy doubled in 2021, and health-focused restaurants on Swiggy HealthHub witnessed a 200 per cent increase in orders. Bengaluru emerged as the most health-conscious city followed by Hyderabad and Mumbai. Mondays and Thursdays are when India eats the healthiest.

Orders for Keto, the low-carb and high-fat diet, grew by 23 per cent. There is an 83 per cent surge in vegan and plant-based food orders. Swiggy’s food delivery is present in 500 cities across India.

In terms of grocery, Instamart delivered over 28 million packs of fruits and vegetables alone in 2021. Tomatoes, bananas, onions, potatoes, and green chilies were the top 5 fruits and veggies delivered in under 30 minutes. This year, Indians ordered enough tomatoes to play the Tomatina festival in Spain for 11 years. The total bananas ordered on Instamart outweighed the Statue of Liberty by 2.6 times.

 About 1.4 million packets of instant noodles, 3.1 million packets of chocolate, 2.3 million tubs of ice creams and 6.1 million packets of chips were ordered online. Chips were the top item ordered post 10 pm.

Over 70,000 packs of band-aid, 55,000 packs of diapers and 3 lakh packs of sanitary napkins were delivered in 15-30 minutes.

Also, about 1 lakh masks and over 4 lakh soaps and handwashes were ordered online. Swiggy’s express grocery delivery service Instamart was present in two cities at the beginning of 2021 and is currently present in 18 cities.

Food items approximated 48 per cent of the total Genie orders. Interestingly, over 20,000 of these orders were for pet food. The “medicine” category on Genie registered an increase of 288.79 per cent. Customers ordered a wide range of over-the-counter medicines, including homeopathic and ayurvedic.

Food and grocery followed by medicines, rounded off the top three categories for Genie deliveries. The maximum distance travelled by a delivery partner was 55.5 km to deliver a food package in Bangalore. The shortest distance was to a store 200 meters away from a customer’s doorstep to pick up a tongue cleaner.

Chicken was India’s preferred choice of non-vegetarian food, as ready-to-cook meats evolved into the new favourite category in meat for this year. Across cities, Chicken Curry Cut was the favorite meat.

Swiggy’s believe it or not- 2021 edition:

• Chennai turned out to be the most generous city where a Swiggy delivery partner was tipped Rs. 6000 for a single order

• Bangaloreans' love for Dosas is awe-inspiring: Not only did Bangalore top the charts for ordering Dosas, Dosa batter was also very popularly ordered by people in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai - with Instamart delivering over 8 lakh Kgs of batter in 2021

• A Biryani lover in Kolkata made a Swiggy Genie delivery partner to travel 39.3 Kms from home to bring her her favorite Mutton Biryani!

• 7-9 PM seemed to be the “happy hours” for food lovers with maximum orders being placed then

•  A Swiggy Genie travelled 43.3 Kms to deliver a box of brownies to a customer at the Hyderabad Airport.

• Pan Asian, Indian, and Chinese were the top 3 cuisines ordered, followed by Mexican and Korean.

• Over 80% of customers opted to pay online, instead of paying by cash on delivery. 

• In a single order, a customer in Kolkata ordered 15.4 Kgs of Hilsa from Swiggy Meat Stores