The rising participation of women in the workforce, longer working hours and the growth of dual-income households are driving demand for convenient, time-saving foods. This surge in interest has led to an increase in ready meal launches, signalling exciting times for the industry. However, current consumption remains concentrated in upper-tier cities and among financially stable, employed individuals, highlighting barriers to broader adoption.
This Report outlines two key strategies for growth: increasing purchase frequency among existing consumers and expanding market penetration by addressing gaps among non-consumers.
It also delves into health-conscious trends, reflecting the growing consumer preference for nutrient-rich choices. As this shift gains momentum, developing innovative, nutrition-focused products becomes essential to promote broader adoption.
Additionally, the Report analyses distinct consumption occasions for instant ready meals and heat-and-eat options, providing insights into tailoring offerings to meet evolving consumer needs.
This report looks at the following areas:
- Popular types of instant and heat-and-eat ready meals consumed over the past six months
- Identifying key white space opportunities for new consumption occasions in the instant and heat-and-eat ready meals segment
- Strategic growth approaches: expanding market penetration and boosting consumption frequency, supported by key driver analysis
- Leading health attributes influencing consumption among both consumers and non-consumers
- Three prominent trends shaping the ready meals industry in India
Demand for convenience is rising, but ready meals face expansion hurdles. Growth lies in breaking barriers, expanding occasions and leading with nutrient-rich innovations.
Tulsi Joshi, Senior Food & Drink Analyst, India
Market Definitions
Ready meals are pre-prepared food products designed for convenience, allowing consumers to enjoy a quick and hassle-free meal. This report focuses on two main categories of ready meals:
- Instant Ready Meals: these are shelf-stable options that require only the addition of boiling water. Examples include instant poha, upma, khichdi, porridge for children and oats.
- Heat-and-Eat Ready Meals: these meals come in frozen, chilled, or ambient formats and only require heating before serving. Examples include heat-and-eat pizza, pasta, roti, paratha, rice dishes and Indian desserts.
Please note this report excludes instant noodles, soups and pastas. It also does not cover semi-finished products, such as curry pastes, ready-to-cook pre-mixes or batters (eg, idli/dosa batter, pancake mix, dhokla mix) and dessert mixes.
Ready meals are pre-prepared food products designed for convenience, allowing consumers to enjoy quick and hassle-free meal. This report focuses on two main categories of ready meals:
- Instant Ready Meals: These are shelf-stable options that require only the addition of boiling water. Examples include instant poha, upma, khichdi, porridge for children and oats.
- Heat-and-Eat Ready Meals: These meals come in frozen, chilled, or ambient formats and only require heating before serving. Examples include heat-and-eat pizza, pasta, roti, paratha, rice dishes and Indian desserts.
Please note this report excludes instant noodles, soups and pastas. It also does not cover semi-finished products, such as curry pastes, ready-to-cook pre-mixes or batters (eg, idli/dosa batter, pancake mix, dhokla mix) and dessert mixes.
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- Report definition
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- Mintel recommends
- Key issues covered in this Report
- Overview
- Address the satisfaction gap for engaging consumers and increasing adoption among non-consumers
- Unlock growth potential: tackle dissatisfaction of non-consumers and elevate the experience for existing ones
- Unlock potential: tackle dissatisfaction of non-consumers and elevate experience for existing consumers
- Go beyond breakfast occasion to increase consumption frequency for instant ready meals
- Increase consumption occasions for instant and heat-and-eat ready meals
- Graph 1: select consumption occasions of heat-and-eat ready meals, 2024
- Increase market reach by combining macro- and micronutrients
- Boost nutrition in ready meals with high-protein, fibre-rich, vitamin C-enriched and iron-fortified options
- Graph 2: health features for encouraging ready meals consumption, by select segments, 2024
- Mintel predicts
- The outlook for the ready meals category, 2024
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KEY TRENDS
- What you need to know
- The emerging convenience-driven culture
- Demand for convenience rises with increased working hours and female labour force participation
- The growing demand for convenience fuels the premiumisation trend in India
- Graph 3: % of respondents who agree/disagree to select statement*, 2024
- Convenience claims are rising in food and drink launches
- Graph 4: % of launches with select claim category in food launches, 2020-25
- Graph 5: growing convenience claims in food launches, 2022-25
- Instant and ready meals launches show an upward trajectory
- Graph 6: total share of hot cereals and meals and meal centre launches, 2020-25
- Rising scrutiny of UPF: consumers, media, influencers and government weigh in
- The rise of conscious consumerism in India
- Social Influencers and media houses are raising awareness of the harmful effects of ultra-processed foods
- Governments and regulators are stepping up to raise awareness of UPFs’ health risks
- Consumers are becoming nutri-conscious
- Nutritional value is emerging as a key purchase driver for food and drinks
- Graph 7: % of respondents who strongly agree to select statement, 2023 vs 2024
- Indians are getting serious about seeking macro- and micronutrients from their food purchases
- Graph 8: important factors when shopping for food*, 2022 vs 2025
- Micronutrients are getting their due attention
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WHAT CONSUMERS WANT AND WHY
- What you need to know
- Ready meals are consumed by four in 10 Indians, driven by younger men, working women, the affluent and Western-region dwellers
- Graph 9: consumption of ready meals in the last six months, 2024
- Graph 10: consumption of ready meals in the last six months, by gender and age, region, employment and gender, 2024
- Instant ready meals lead the Indian market in both consumption and new product launches
- Graph 11: consumption of ready meals in the last six months, 2024
- Graph 12: types of ready meals consumed in the last six months, 2024
- Strategies  for market expansion
- Unlock growth potential: tackle dissatisfaction of non-consumers and elevate the experience for existing ones
- Graph 13: level of overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction with ready meals, 2024
- Graph 14: select level of overall satisfaction with ready meals, 2024
- Tackle dissatisfaction of non-consumers by addressing the key pain points
- Key driver analysis – correlation analysis
- Encourage trials among non-consumers by tackling their biggest pain points:
- Features for elevating the consumer experience: promoting nutrition content and elevating taste and naturalness
- Key features for enhancing the existing consumer experience
- Unlock growth potential among consumers and non-consumers by…
- Create nutrition-focused innovations
- Gain trust with behind-the-scenes insights into ready meal production
- Now: boldly communicate innovative technology to enhance the consumer experience
- Next: embrace the farm-to-fork concept to highlight the product journey with complete transparency
- Offer regional favourites
- Introduce diverse global cuisines to boost ready meal adoption
- Gladful spotlights ingredient and nutrient superiority to strengthen its value proposition
- Make bolder natural ingredients claims and prove it with traceability and origin stories
- Mintel Spark develops a ready meal concept for enhancing adoption and elevating the consumer experience
- Instant ready meals
- A third of Indians are instant ready meals consumers
- Graph 15: consumption of instant ready meals in the last six months, by gender and age, region, city tier and current financial situation, 2024
- Masala oats is the most popular instant ready meal, followed by poha and upma
- Graph 16: types of instant ready meals consumed in the last six months, 2024
- Breakfast is the primary occasion for instant ready meals; instant upma is the most popular breakfast food
- Graph 17: consumption occasions of instant ready meals, by types of instant ready meals, 2024
- Elevate the breakfast experience for instant ready meals with superior nutrition and creative toppings
- Eggs and breakfast are trending on social media; instant eggs hold potential to be a healthy, protein-rich breakfast option
- Get egg-spired!
- Increase consumption frequency of instant poha, upma and masala oats by tapping into lunch and dinner occasions
- Graph 18: select consumption occasions of select instant ready meals, 2024
- Make instant ready meals more suitable for lunch and dinner
- Break the ‘breakfast’ stereotype: position instant ready meals as quick, healthy, heat-at-home snacks
- Graph 19: select consumption occasion of select instant ready meals, 2024
- Graph 20: between lunch and dinner consumption occasion of select instant ready meals, by region, 2024
- Take inspiration from instant noodles to make instant ready meals for snacking moments
- Sabudana khichdi: a breakfast opportunity
- Launch alert: sabudana khichdi launches on ecommerce platforms
- Tap into lunch and dinner occasions with instant, nutrient-dense khichdi
- Graph 21: select consumption occasions of instant khichdi, 2024
- Position instant khichdi as a protein-packed, fibre-rich Indian meal
- Explore regional varieties in instant khichdi
- Heat-and-eat ready meals
- Heat-and-eat is a niche market dominated by younger men, the affluent and working individuals
- Graph 22: consumption of heat-and-eat ready meals in the last six months, by gender, age, region, city tier, employment and current financial situation, 2024
- In the niche heat-and-eat market, international varieties are the most popular, followed by paratha/roti
- Graph 23: types of heat-and-eat ready meals consumed in the last six months, 2024
- Heat-and-eat ready meals are mainly consumed for lunch and dinner
- Graph 24: select consumption occasions of heat-and-eat ready meals, 2024
- Lunch leads the way for heat-and-eat ready meals, while heat-and-eat paratha/roti steals the spotlight at dinner
- Graph 25: select occasions for consuming heat-and-eat ready meals in the last six months, by types of heat-and-eat ready meals, 2024
- Provide a comforting meal experience in convenient, easy-to-carry and -use packaging
- Competition heats up in the heat-and-eat roti/paratha segment
- Increase consumption of heat-and-eat international varieties for snacking occasions
- Graph 26: consumption of heat-and-eat ready meals in the last six months, by gender and age, 2024
- Graph 27: select consumption occasions of heat-and-eat international varieties in the last six months, 2024
- Opportune time to enter the snack market; position heat-and-eat varieties as comfort food for younger generations
- New launch alert: Prasuma launches pizza minis with seasoning sachets to target snacking moments
- Draw inspiration from global counterparts to develop innovative formats tailored to snacking occasions
- Bundle heat-and-eat international varieties with frozen vegetables and French fries to increase market reach
- Graph 28: top three frozen food consumed in the last six months, by select segment, 2024
- Health features for encouraging consumption
- Protein, vitamin C, fibre and iron are top health features for encouraging consumption among consumers and non-consumers
- Graph 29: health features for encouraging ready meals consumption, by select segments, 2024
- Boost market reach with high/added protein, vitamin C and iron claims
- Consumers show most interest in added health claims, but no nasties continues to dominate ready meal launches
- Graph 30: health features (net) for encouraging ready meals consumption, 2024
- Graph 31: % of launches with select claims in ready meals, 2022-25
- Status quo: high/added protein and fibre claims are mainstream; vitamins/minerals are niche, but gaining momentum
- Graph 32: total share of launches in ready meals with select claims, 2022-25
- Graph 33: % of ready meals launches with select claims, 2015-25
- Ride the pro-protein wave, especially to attract younger and upper-city tier consumers
- Graph 34: select health feature for encouraging ready meals consumption, by age and city tier, 2024
- Take a pro-protein approach in ready meals
- High-fibre claim can appeal to Millennial women
- Graph 35: select health feature for encouraging ready meals consumption, by gender and age, 2024
- New launch alert: The Divine Foods launches Instant Kanji
- The future of gut health: fibre and beyond
- Fortify ready meals with vitamin C
- Premiumise by developing ready meals infused with iron
- Graph 36: select health feature for encouraging ready meals consumption, by city tier and socio-economic class, 2024
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APPENDIX
- Report definition
- Consumer survey methodology
- TURF methodology
- Key driver analysis – correlation analysis
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