UK Attitudes towards Cooking in the Home Consumer Report 2024

Mintel’s UK Attitudes Towards Cooking in the Home Market Report examines UK consumers’ attitudes towards home cooking, decisions consumers are making to save money when cooking at home, and opportunities for brands to position themselves to best serve consumers that are cooking in the home. This report covers consumer attitudes, consumer behaviour, industry trends, market challenges and statistics for the UK home cooking market.

Key Issues Covered in this Report

• Cooking habits for evening meals, including cooking completely or partly from scratch, and use of prepared meals
• Behaviours of home cooks, including preferences for recipes with short ingredient lists and concerns about ultra-processed foods
• Sources of inspiration for cooking in the home, including recipe websites/magazines and social media
• Attitudes towards cooking, such as the desire for more flavour in meat-free meals

Home Cooking Market Trends

Making meals healthier is the top reason for cooking meals completely/partly from scratch, with over half of home cooks listing this reason. Moving forward, interest in healthy eating is expected to gain further momentum, highlighting the pressing need for shortcut products and ready meals to reassure consumers about their better-for-you credentials.

Almost half of home cooks say that concerns about ultra-processed foods have made them cook at home more compared to a year ago. Meal components such as processed meat, meat substitutes and cooking sauces stand to face growing scrutiny if this topic continues to gather media attention. This points to an opportunity for less processed variants and frozen foods‘ preservative-free proposition to win favour. It also dials up the need for processed products to showcase their ‘clean label’ credentials.

The meat reduction trend is now firmly mainstream. With interest in sustainability expected to grow, this will bolster its relevance moving forward. With half of all adults looking for more guidance on how to deliver more flavour in meat-free meals, this creates a sizeable opportunity for meat-free meal components, as well as for sauces and seasonings.

Purchase Mintel’s full report for a complete overview of the trends impacting consumers’ attitudes towards cooking at home, including an analysis of future trends in home cooking that will shape future consumer behaviour.

Expert Analysis from an Industry Specialist

This report, written by Isabelle Shilling, a leading Food & Drink analyst, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current consumer trends in cooking at home.

Home cooking has strong health and money-saving associations. Simple recipes and ideas on how to deliver flavour to meat-free meals will be key opportunities.

 

Isabelle Shilling
Research Analyst