Anju Kalhan left a 20-year corporate career to build Bliss by Anju, a plant-based, oil-free, dairy-free snack brand now stocked in 41 Indian retail stores.
Bliss by Anju, founded by Anju Kalhan, sells plant-based snacks formulated without added oil, ghee, or dairy, and has reached 41 retail stores in India as of November 2026, according to a YourStory profile published on 3 November 2026.
Kalhan spent two decades in corporate roles before stepping away to address what she saw as a gap in the Indian snack market: products that are genuinely free of cooking oil and animal-derived fats, not just marketed as "light" or "baked." The brand's origin was a personal food experiment, Kalhan reformulating snacks for her own diet before deciding the results were worth commercialising. The expansion to 41 stores marks a shift from a home-kitchen project to a structured retail operation, though the brand remains small by FMCG standards.
What the brand claims and what to verify
Bliss by Anju positions its products as plant-based, oil-free, and dairy-free. These are three distinct claims, and each carries different regulatory weight under Indian food law.
Under FSSAI's Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, a "vegan" or "plant-based" claim on a label requires that no ingredient of animal origin is present, including hidden carriers like casein in "non-dairy" creamers or lactose used as a flow agent in spice blends. FSSAI has not yet published a dedicated certification standard for "plant-based" as a standalone front-of-pack claim, which means brands can use the phrase without third-party verification. Buyers should check the ingredient list for whey, casein, lactose, and E-numbers derived from animal sources (E120 cochineal, E441 gelatine) rather than relying on front-of-pack language alone.
The "no added oil" claim is more straightforward to verify: look for any oil, fat, or shortening in the ingredient list. Some brands achieve an oil-free label by using nut butters or coconut cream, which are technically whole foods but carry comparable fat loads. Whether Bliss by Anju uses such substitutes is not confirmed in the available reporting.
FSSAI's draft Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling regulations would require high-fat, high-sugar, and high-sodium products to carry warning labels. If those regulations are finalised and enforced, snack brands making health-adjacent claims will face greater scrutiny on their actual nutrition profiles. The full implementation schedule has not been released as of this writing.
Why this brand's model is worth watching
The Indian plant-based snack segment is crowded with products that carry clean-label language on the front while listing maltodextrin, refined palm oil, or synthetic flavour enhancers in the fine print. Maltodextrin is a partially hydrolyzed starch, typically derived from corn or tapioca, with a glycaemic index higher than table sugar. Its presence in a "healthy snack" is a reasonable red flag for buyers managing blood sugar.
What distinguishes Kalhan's stated approach is the oil-free formulation, which, if accurate, removes one of the most common hidden-calorie sources in Indian namkeen and roasted snack categories. Traditional chakli, chivda, and mathri are deep-fried; most "baked" supermarket alternatives still use 8 to 15 percent added oil for texture and shelf life. A genuinely oil-free product in this category would be unusual.
The 41-store footprint also signals something about the brand's distribution strategy. Most clean-label startups in India begin with direct-to-consumer online sales, where margins are higher and label claims face less in-store comparison. Moving into physical retail at 41 locations suggests Kalhan is betting on repeat purchase behaviour from shoppers who can examine the product in person, which is a reasonable test of whether the formulation holds up to scrutiny.
The brand has not, based on available reporting, disclosed which retail chains or stores stock its products, what cities those stores are in, or whether it holds any third-party certifications (India Organic, Vegan Society, Jain-friendly certification from recognised bodies). Those details matter for buyers in specific dietary communities.
What buyers and cooks should do
If you encounter Bliss by Anju on a shelf, the ingredient list is the first thing to read, not the front-of-pack claims. Confirm:
- No oils or fats appear in any position in the ingredient list, including coconut oil, palm olein, or hydrogenated vegetable fat.
- No dairy derivatives: whey protein, milk solids, casein, lactose, butter, or ghee.
- No synthetic flavour enhancers: monosodium glutamate (INS 621), disodium inosinate (INS 631), or disodium guanylate (INS 627).
- No artificial colours listed by INS number without a common name.
For home cooks trying to replicate oil-free Indian snacks, the technique Kalhan's origin story points toward is air-roasting or steam-roasting whole grains and legumes, then seasoning with spice blends that use no fat as a carrier. Roasted chana, makhana, and puffed amaranth are the most forgiving bases for this approach because they hold texture without oil. Binding in oil-free snack bars typically comes from dates, tamarind paste, or cooked and mashed legumes rather than syrups or refined starches.
For retailers and buyers evaluating the brand for Jain or strictly vegan institutional supply, the absence of a published third-party certification means you would need to request the full ingredient specification sheet and allergen declaration directly from the brand before listing it as certified Jain or vegan on your menu or shelf tag.
Bliss by Anju's growth from a kitchen experiment to 41 stores in a market where most clean-label startups stall at direct-to-consumer is a data point worth noting. Whether the products live up to their positioning depends on details the brand has not yet made fully public.