India is the world’s largest producer of milk, with an annual output exceeding 248 million metric tonnes and a share of nearly 23 per cent in global milk production (IMARC Group, 2025). Over the years, the country’s dairy sector has been undergoing a major structural change from conventional liquid milk to functional dairy foods. Functional dairy foods are those that, on account of physiologically active components, confer health benefits over and above basic nutrition (IOM/FNB, 1994). Functional dairy foods includes probiotic curd, probiotic yogurt, probiotic lassi, shrikhand, fortified milk, non-fermented probiotic drinks, malted milk products, whey protein products, baby and infant foods, fat-rich products and frozen functional desserts.
       
The concept of functional foods was originated in Japan in the mid-1980s under the FOSHU (Food for Specified Health Uses) regulatory framework. “The global functional dairy foods market was valued at USD 48,600 million in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 74,100 million by 2035 at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5 per cent (Future Market Insights, 2025). Within India, the fortified dairy products market stood at USD 6.2 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow at 6.27 per cent annually during years 2026-2034 (IMARC Group, 2025). The probiotic and prebiotic foods segment is projected to grow at 16.50 per cent per annum during 2025-2033 (IMARC Group, 2024)”. The northern part of India is a very relevant place for a study on the awareness of functional dairy foods because states like Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir contribute large share to the milk production and consumption of India. Cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Jammu represent diverse socio-economic profiles whereas Karnal, Alwar and Kathua are representatives of semi-urban dynamics. Consumer awareness of  functional dairy food compared to a conventional product is still limited, especially in areas outside of metropolitan centers. Studies in metropolitan Delhi showed that while brand awareness for probiotic products was high at 98.8 per cent, only 71 per cent were regular consumers (Das et al., 2017). Similar patterns were also confirmed for Ranchi city by Kerketta et al. (2023). Dhasarathan et al., (2024) in Tamil Nadu reported 84 per cent awareness with television advertisement as main source of information. Arora et al., (2021) observed moderate awareness and low technical knowledge among consumers in Sonipat, Haryana. Shireen and Aneesh (2021) in their review on probiotic awareness in India noted that most studies were confined to urban, middle to high-income households. No such comprehensive study has been carried out in Northern India that simultaneously examines this awareness gap across income groups, area types and districts in multiple cities. Therefore, the present study was conducted to study consumer awareness regarding functional dairy foods and their sources of information in seven selected cities of Northern India.

The present study was conducted during 2024-25 across seven cities of Northern India. The survey was planned and coordinated from the Division of Dairy Economics, Statistics and Management, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Jammu were selected as main urban areas while Karnal, Alwar and Kathua represented semi-urban areas along with their adjacent rural areas.
       
A purposive multistage stratified random sampling design was used for the selection of sample consumer households. A total of 640 consumer households were selected: 175 from Delhi, 75 each from Chandigarh, Jaipur and Jammu and 40 each from semi-urban and rural areas of Karnal, Alwar and Kathua. Structured personal interview schedules were used for primary data collection. The entire sample was stratified into three income groups using the cumulative square root frequency approach of Dalenius and Hodges (1959) as given below:
 

L  =  Y^i-1  +  (Yⁱ - Y^i-1)/√fⁱ × [(i × Sk√L)-S^i-1]

 
Where,
L= Number of strata.
Y^i-1= Lower limit of the class in which Li lies.
Yⁱ= Upper limit of the class.
√fⁱ= Square root of frequency of i^th class.
S^i-1= Cumulative square root of frequency of preceding class.
Sk√L= Cumulative sum of square roots up to stratum k.
       
Awareness was assessed at two stages: Awareness before any explanation and aided awareness after a brief explanation accompanied by product examples. Descriptive statistics, percentages and cross-tabulations were used for analysis.

Socio-economic profile of respondents
 
Table 1 presents the distribution of sample households by location. The total sample of 640 consumer respondents was distributed across urban (400), semi-urban (120) and rural (120) areas, with Delhi contributing the largest share of 175 respondents.


       
The income distribution of the sample households is shown in Table 2. More than half of the respondents (56.25%) are from the low-income group with an average monthly family income of ₹ 66,968. The middle-income group comprised 29.53 per cent (average ₹ 1,29,423 per month) and high-income group 14.22 per cent (average ₹ 2,37,014 per month). The average monthly income of a family was ₹ 1,09,590 on an average. Average incomes of the three groups were significantly different from each other as indicated by different superscripts (a, b, c). These strata are broadly in line with findings from consumer surveys on dairy products in Indian cities (Das et al., 2017; Kerketta et al., 2023).


       
The summary of the socio-economic characteristics of the sample is presented below. Nuclear families were predominant with 90.00 per cent. 62.81 per cent of samples were vegetarian. The main occupation of the households was salaried employment (50.00%), followed by self-employed (35.00%) and businessman (15.00%). These features are indication of the composition of the urban, semi-urban and rural consumer populations in Northern India.
       
The distribution by family type, food habit and occupation is also presented graphically in Fig 1, Fig 2 and Fig 3 to facilitate visual comparison.






 
Major functional dairy food brands available in Northern India
 
Functional dairy foods are marketed in Northern India through national cooperatives, private companies and regional dairy federations. Functional dairy foods were classified into fermented and non-fermented functional dairy foods. Table 3 shows the main brands found in the seven cities of the study.


 
Awareness of functional dairy foods
 
The awareness level of functional dairy foods across different income groups is presented in Table 4. In total 73.75 per cent of the 640 respondents were aware of functional dairy foods but only 15.47 per cent of consumers were aware before any explanation. Another 58.28 per cent aware after explanation of functional dairy foods and 26.25 per cent were still completely unaware about the products. Govindrao (2013) found 83.00 per cent awareness with functional foods in urban Maharashtra and Haripriya and Mageshwari (2021) reported 73.70 per cent awareness in Tamil Nadu. Dhasarathan et al., (2024) reported 84.00 per cent awareness in districts of Chennai and Salem. Chaudhari et al. (2024) reported that social media, books and word-of-mouth were the major sources of awareness among students in Anand. Makwana and Raval (2025) reported moderate awareness and generally positive health beliefs among consumers of probiotic dairy foods in India.


       
There was a clear income gradient of awareness. The proportion of those who were not aware fell from 36.11 per cent for low-income households to 6.59 per cent for high-income households. The percentage of those who were aware only after the explanation increased from 49.17 per cent in the low-income group to 78.02 per cent in the high-income group. So, income not only decides whether consumers can afford these products, but also how open they are to learning about functional dairy foods. Das et al., (2017) and Parasuraman et al., (2021) have reported similar findings.
       
The district wise pattern of awareness is shown in Fig 4. Delhi had the maximum overall awareness at 91.43 per cent followed by Chandigarh at 89.33 per cent and Jaipur at 80.00 per cent. Kathua had the lowest awareness at 46.25 per cent, Alwar was at 52.50 per cent and Jammu at 60.00 per cent, also far behind the urban areas average. The share of those completely unaware was between 8.57 per cent in Delhi and 53.75 per cent in Kathua.


 
Source of information on functional dairy foods
 
Table 5 presents the sources through which aware respondents (n=472) first learned about functional dairy foods. Social media was the most important source (40.68 per cent), reflecting the dominance of Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp in the Northern Indian cities. Television advertisement was second with 19.70 per cent followed by word of mouth through friends, relatives and neighbours with 18.86 per cent. The least was from newspapers at 9.75 per cent while 11.02 per cent was from Internet-based searches. This social media dominance contrasts with Dhasarathan et al. (2024) who found television advertisement as the primary source in Tamil Nadu and Das et al., (2017) who found electronic media, internet and friends as roughly equally important in Delhi. This shift towards social media is consistent with the accelerated pace of digital adoption in India, where internet and smartphone usage have expanded significantly among urban and semi-urban areas during the period 2020-2024 which has also been noticed by Chaturvedi et al., (2024) in their study of consumer behaviour patterns across the Indian dairy supply chain.


       
Fig 5 shows the district-wise source pattern. Social media was the most used source in all the seven cities, least in Delhi (37.50 per cent) and maximum in Jaipur (46.67 per cent). Regional cooperatives Verka and Saras invest significantly in broadcast advertising in Chandigarh (23.88%) and Jaipur (21.67%), where television advertisement was more prominent. Friends/Relatives/Neigbours or word of mouth was relatively more significant in Alwar (23.81%) and Kathua (24.32%) in line with lower digital connectivity in smaller cities where personal networks compensate for limited media exposure. Internet was the most important in Jammu (17.78%) which might be indicative of the government-driven mobile connectivity schemes in the Union Territory.

The present study was carried out on consumer awareness of functional dairy foods in seven cities of Northern India covering 640 households during 2024-25. Overall awareness was at 73.75 per cent, but spontaneous awareness before explanation was only 15.47 per cent, showing a big difference between accidentally seeing the brand and knowing about the functional dairy foods category. Awareness rose sharply with income and urbanisation, from 63.89 per cent in low-income households to over 93 per cent in high-income households. Delhi and Chandigarh supported almost complete awareness while Kathua, Alwar and Jammu lagged far behind. Social media was the highest channel, accounting for over 40.00 per cent of information sources across all districts, followed by television advertisement. The study suggests that investment in targeted digital campaigns, regional-language social media content and on-ground awareness programmes in semi-urban and rural areas will be a good way to expand the functional dairy foods consumer base in Northern India.

The authors are grateful to ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, for institutional support and to all consumer respondents across the seven study cities for their time and cooperation.
 
Disclaimers
 
The views and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of their affiliated institutions. The authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information provided, but do not accept any liability for any direct or indirect losses resulting from the use of this content.
 
Informed consent
 
Informed consent was obtained from all individual respondents included in the study prior to the primary survey.

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. No funding or sponsorship influenced the design of the study, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.