This report looks at the following areas:
- Frequency of home cooking and baking, and changes in cooking/baking habits
- Reasons for cooking/baking at home
- Types of products baked
- Attitudes towards using ready meals in home cooking
The emotional bonding aspect of parent-child home cooking and the popularity of steaming have expanded the occasions and range of home cooking, providing new impetus for product and service innovation.
Pepper Peng, Senior Analyst, China Insights
Market Definitions
This Report explores consumers’ changing cooking and baking habits. The cooking and baking habits explored in this Report include cooking and baking frequency, home baking products, cooking approaches and methods, and attitudes towards using ready meals in home cooking.
Group definitions:
- High-frequency consumers/home cooks/bakers are those who cook/bake at home every day or almost every day.
- Medium-frequency consumers/home cooks/bakers are those who cook/bake at home a few times a week.
- Low-frequency consumers/home cooks/bakers are those who cook/bake at home once a week or less.
Collapse All
-
Executive summary
- Key issues covered in this Report
- Definition
- What you need to know
- The market
- Market factors
- Market highlights
- The consumer
- Chinese cooking is fundamental, Western cooking/baking is a lifestyle activity
- Graph 1: cooking and baking frequency, 2024
- Ready-to-cook foods are in an awkward position, but their consumers are more accepting of ready meals
- Graph 2: home cooking approaches, 2024
- Health and safety are important, but taste cannot be compromised
- Food safety is more important for frequent cooks of Chinese dishes
- Graph 3: reasons for cooking/baking, 2024
- Dishes and sauces for steaming have great potential, while air fryer dishes focus on Western cuisine
- Graph 4: changes in cooking methods, 2024
- Simple hits the sweet spot in home baking
- Health reasons are more likely to inspire home baking, with pies/tarts the top choice
- Graph 5: bakery products made, 2024
- New regulations poised to allay the biggest concern about prepared dishes: preservatives
- Graph 6: attitudes towards ready meals, 2024
- Graph 7: concerns about using ready meals at home, 2024
- Issues and insights
- What we think
-
The market
- Market factors
- Family sizes are shrinking
- The definition and scope of ready meals have been clarified for the first time
- The regional cuisine trend continues to fuel innovation in sauces and ready meals
- Market highlights
- Home seasonings focus more on light cooking
- Sauce flavours become intellectual property, reaching more consumer segments
- The development of regional cuisines fuels further segmentation of spicy flavour profiles
-
The consumer
- Frequency of cooking and baking
- Chinese cooking and baking remain resilient, Western cuisine wavers
- Graph 8: cooking and baking frequency, 2024
- High overlap between consumers who cook and bake Western food
- Graph 9: have baked Western-style goods at home, by have cooked Western-style dishes at home, July 2024
- Graph 10: frequency of baking Western-style goods at home, by frequency of cooking Western-style dishes at home, 2024
- Women aged 25-29 embrace diverse cooking methods
- Graph 11: home cooking frequency – a few times a week, by gender and age, 2024
- Focus on cooking portions suitable for solo and two-person households…
- Graph 12: frequency of cooking Chinese dishes at home, by family structure, 2024
- … including small sachets/portions of sauces
- Home cooking approaches
- Ready-to-cook foods are not as popular as ready-to-heat foods
- Graph 13: home cooking approaches, 2024
- Consumers who use ready-to-cook formats are more accepting of ready meals
- Graph 14: concerns about using ready meals at home, by cooking approach, 2024
- Reasons for cooking/baking at home
- Health and safety are important, but taste cannot be compromised
- Graph 15: reasons for cooking/baking, 2024
- Examples of cooking products/services that enhance the parent-child connection
- Food safety is more appealing than healthy eating
- Graph 16: reasons for cooking at home, by frequency of cooking Chinese dishes at home, 2024
- Home cooking drivers differ by age
- Graph 17: reasons for cooking/baking at home, by age, 2024
- Changes in cooking methods
- Steaming is hot, air fryers are cooling
- Graph 18: changes in cooking methods, 2024
- Frequent cooks of Chinese food prefer time-saving and convenient methods
- Graph 19: cooking method changes – used more, by frequency of cooking Chinese dishes at home, July 2024
- Western dishes compatible with air fryers are an innovation trend
- Graph 20: cooking method changes – used more, by cooking Chinese or Western-style dishes at home (medium to high frequency)*, 2024
- Examples of Western dishes suitable for air fryers
- Home baking
- Health may be a bigger draw than cost-effectiveness in home baking
- Graph 21: reasons for home baking, 2024
- Graph 22: value for money in baking – baking at home vs. buying, 2024
- Simple hits the sweet spot in home baking
- Graph 23: bakery products made, 2024
- Pies/tarts are suitable for all home baking skill levels
- Graph 24: bakery products made, by frequency of Western-style home baking, 2024
- The debate over value for money does not significantly affect home baking preferences
- Graph 25: preferences for home baking, by cost-effectiveness opinion, 2024
- Graph 26: preference for baking at home, by frequency of making Western-style bakery at home, July 2024
- Concerns about using ready meals in home cooking
- Consumers do not completely reject ready meals
- Graph 27: advantages of ready meals, 2024
- Graph 28: willingness to use ready meals when cooking at home, 2024
- With new regulations, the perception of products containing preservatives needs urgent correction
- Graph 29: concerns about using ready meals at home, 2024
- Graph 30: attitudes towards ready meals, 2024
- Educate more about ready meals to reduce negative impressions
- Graph 31: concerns about using ready meals at home, by attitudes towards ready meals, July 2024
- Free from claims can be extended to more ready meal categories
-
Issues and insights
- Increase the efficiency of steaming
- Steaming occasions warrant attention from all sides
- Steamed dish seasonings can feature more diverse regional and ingredients
- Kitchen appliance example: Panasonic combination steam microwave oven
- Strengthen development of products and services for parent-child cooking
- Demand for parent-child cooking is rising, encouraged by the Ministry of Education
- Examples of kitchenware products for children
- Long-term, seasoning products suitable for children deserve attention
- Graph 32: top 10 markets for sauces and seasonings with children’s claims, 2021-24
- Graph 33: sauces and seasonings with children’s claims, by sub-category, 2021-24
- Examples of oils and sauces for kids: BioJunior
- Examples of seasoning products designed for children in overseas markets
- Ready-to-bake products warrant attention
- Ready-to-bake is nascent in APAC
- Graph 34: top ten ready-to-bake product markets, 2021-2024
- Graph 35: new launches of ready-to-bake products, by region, 2021-24
- Ready-to-bake puff pastry is growing rapidly domestically, but there are few products available
- Examples of ready-to-bake puff pastry products
-
Appendix – market size and forecast, research methodology and abbreviations
- Methodology
- Abbreviations
Why Choose Mintel?
Mintel is the world’s leading market intelligence agency. We show you how consumers think today and tomorrow. As a trusted partner to industry leaders, we deliver game-changing insights to businesses across the globe, fuelling their marketing and innovation strategies that will shape the future.
Access high-quality market research with every purchase of Mintel’s consumer reports. Here’s what else is included in your report purchase:
- Multiple Report Formats: Mintel’s reports are available in PDF and PPT formats, and are delivered straight to your inbox, so you can easily share Mintel’s market intelligence.
- Access to Mintel’s Clients Portal: After your purchase is completed, you’ll receive an invitation to join Mintel’s Clients Portal, providing instant access to supplementary insights from Mintel’s industry experts.
- Interactive Databook: Mintel’s bespoke consumer data is presented as an interactive website, so you can deep dive into your chosen topic, explore demographics and download specific statistics.
- Custom Presentation Tool: Easily incorporate selected research data and analysis into a tailor-made presentation to win over clients and stakeholders.
£ 3,695 (Excl.Tax)
-
Download today with instant access
Pay via credit card or invoice (net 30 payment terms)
-
Multiple formats provided
We send a PDF, Powerpoint and Excel Databook straight to your inbox. An interactive version of the report is also available on our online platform
-
Interactive databook included
Focus on the data that matters most to you with a customisable databook available on our platform
-
Save up to 20% when you purchase multiple reports
Discount automatically applied in basket
Get in Touch
If you have a question about a Mintel Report, or you would like to learn more about our products, get in touch with a member of our team today.
Contact usTrusted by global industry leaders
We use Mintel Reports, mostly for financial services and ecommerce markets, plus a few retail and technology ones.
As a leading payments provider, we value additional insights into consumer behaviour, opinions and trends that are shaping the many different markets we operate in. Mintel is a very good and very quick way for us to obtain those insights.
We use Mintel to get a view on where a particular market is going, which can support us in product development and help us identify opportunities or indeed risks, it is a very useful barometer of a market’s potential.
Andrew Neeson, Market Intelligence Manager, VocaLink
There is no question that Mintel is the go-to resource for the best quality market research, but I did not think it was an affordable option for Abacus Marketing to consider. As a small marketing agency, we only work with a few new clients each year.
However, we have a very high-end consultative approach to our work, so we really do need a partner like Mintel to provide the big agency experience we are always aiming to deliver. Our clients come from an incredibly diverse range of industry sectors, so we obviously need access to market research reports from a very wide spectrum of marketplaces – and that is precisely what we got.
Stephen Taylor-Brown, Managing Director, Abacus
Mintel helps us when we want to know something quickly – it provides fast answers to our questions. If we need to get a view of what’s going on in a particular market it’s very useful.
When carrying out background research, I find Mintel an excellent starting point.
The fact that it covers so many markets is a big plus for me– instead of having to buy specialist products in each area we are interested in, especially when we only require a brief view on a particular market, we can go to Mintel for help as a one-stop shop. I find Mintel a useful and valuable resource.
Ben Zeidler, Director - Research and Analytics, Tenth Wave
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
Pauline Robson, Managing Partner, Mediacom
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
Zac Steele, E-Commerce Trading Development Manager, Waitrose & Partners
Get in Touch
If you have a question about a Mintel Report, or you would like to learn more about our products, get in touch with a member of our team today.
Contact us
