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Food delivery major Zomato is piloting a new cloud kitchen brand called 'Ritual', aimed at tapping into the growing demand for high-protein and health-focused meals.
The brand is being launched in partnership with Massive Restaurants, the hospitality company behind chains such as Farzi Cafe and Louis Burger, sources told CNBC-TV18. In the past, Zomato's former CEO, Deepinder Goyal, has said that the company will not launch private brands on its platform that compete with restaurant partners.
The current model appears to follow that principle, with the operations handled by a partner restaurant group rather than Zomato itself.
Inc42 was the first to report the development.
The cloud kitchen is currently live only in a few locations in Gurugram, with orders available through the Zomato app in nearby areas. According to people aware of the development, the initiative is still at a pilot stage and will be expanded to more cities only if the concept gains traction.
The offering under Ritual largely focuses on the fitness and nutrition segment, with a menu that includes protein shakes, ranging from plant-based and whey to yeast-based blends, along with milkshakes, hot and iced coffees, grilled paneer vaggie, and salads.
Zomato eyes a slice of the health-food market
While the company already features healthy food options within its app, Ritual represents a more structured attempt to cater to the growing community of fitness-conscious consumers.
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Its rival Swiggy has also entered the segment with EatRight, a curated category offering options such as high-protein, low-calorie, and no-added-sugar meals across more than 50 cities.
Unlike Ritual, which operates as a dedicated cloud kitchen in partnership with Massive Restaurants, Swiggy’s EatRight aggregates dishes from partner restaurants already listed on its platform.
Swiggy has highlighted the traction for the category in its Q3 shareholder letter, noting that EatRight orders, spanning high-protein, low-calorie, and sugar-free options, now account for around one in nine orders on the platform.
The push into health-focused meals comes amid rapid growth in India’s wellness and nutrition market. According to industry estimates, India’s health and wellness food market is currently valued at around $35–$39 billion and is projected to grow to between $78 billion and $140 billion by 2032–2033, depending on adoption trends.
Within this, the protein supplements market alone stood at about $773 million in 2024 and is expected to reach nearly $2 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of around 11%. The broader protein nutrition market is estimated at roughly $2.5 billion and is projected to expand at around 14% annually through 2028.
The growth is being driven by rising fitness awareness in urban India and widespread protein deficiency, with studies indicating that nearly 73% of Indians are protein-deficient.
Will the LPG crisis dent the food delivery recovery?
Zomato’s experiment with a specialised cloud kitchen also comes at a time when the broader restaurant industry is facing operational disruptions due to a shortage of commercial LPG cylinders.
The crisis stems from supply disruptions linked to geopolitical tensions in West Asia, which have affected energy shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz — a key transit route for LPG imports. India imports about 62% of its LPG requirements, with nearly 85–90% of these shipments typically routed through Gulf nations, making the country particularly vulnerable to supply disruptions.
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Restaurant industry body NRAI has warned that thousands of establishments could face shutdowns if commercial gas supplies do not resume soon. In cities such as Bengaluru, Pune, and Delhi-NCR, many restaurants have already scaled back menus or temporarily closed operations due to the shortage.
Industry executives told The Economic Times that 1,000–1,500 restaurants across cities like Mumbai and Chennai have already shut operations, while many others are reducing menu options to conserve fuel.
The disruption is also expected to weigh on food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy, as fewer restaurants are able to fulfil online orders. The supply disruption comes at a time when food delivery platforms had just begun to regain growth momentum in the December quarter. Swiggy reported that its gross order value (GOV) rose 20.5% year-on-year to ₹8,959 crore in Q3 FY26, marking its fastest growth in nearly three years.
Similarly, Zomato reported 16.6% year-on-year growth in net order value (NOV) to ₹9,846 crore, translating into 21.3% growth in GOV during the quarter, an acceleration from the 13.8% growth recorded in the previous quarter.
On the financial front, Zomato’s parent Eternal reported a 73% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit to ₹102 crore for the December quarter, while operating revenue surged to ₹16,315 crore, largely driven by Blinkit’s transition to an inventory-led model.
However, the emerging LPG supply disruption now threatens to dent order volumes in the March quarter, potentially slowing the recovery in the food delivery segment even as companies experiment with new formats such as Ritual to unlock growth in specialised food categories.
