1kg plant-protein jar: from raw whey to landed retail price

Pea protein isolate landed Mumbai is the swing factor: a 6% China-lane price move adds or removes ₹18 per jar at our blend ratio (60% pea, 25% rice, 15% complementary stack).

Rice protein is more stable but lower in lysine, which is why we model the blend — it hits a complete amino-acid profile while staying cost-defensible.

Heavy-metal and banned-substance testing is non-negotiable and adds ₹14 – ₹22 per jar if you test every batch. Brands that skip this lose nutra licences faster than they recover.

The new 2026 FSSAI amendments tightened upstream provenance documentation. Brands must now document the supplier chain back to the original processor, not just the importer.

We added a ₹0.80 per jar cost line for documentation handling and a one-time ₹1.4L for the provenance system setup. Founders skip this and get caught at audit.

1kg PET jar with foam liner, foil seal, EPE shrink wrap. We modelled both standard 95mm and premium 110mm wide-mouth — wide-mouth adds ₹6.40 per jar but converts measurably better in shelf testing and accommodates a larger scoop comfortably.

Label substrate matters more than founders think. Matte-laminated PP with cold-foil accents is the current premium standard; gloss BOPP reads value-tier even at the same MRP.

Plant-protein palatability is the hardest engineering problem in the category. Chocolate masks well; vanilla exposes pea-protein notes; unflavoured is a niche-only play.

Sweetener system drives a meaningful chunk of cost. Stevia-based runs ₹12 – ₹16 per jar; allulose-blended (premium tier) runs ₹28 – ₹38. Sucralose remains the cheapest but is increasingly avoided in premium positioning.

At 8k jars, batch testing dominates per-unit cost. At 40k+ jars, blending efficiency dominates. Move to 500kg+ batch sizes and you compress fill cost by ₹6 – ₹9 per jar.

Founders should re-tender at 30k jars cumulative — typically the point where a Tier-1 partner will price-match a boutique just to lock the line.