UK Attitudes towards Cooking in the Home Consumer Report 2023

Cooking in the Home Current Consumer Trends

The widely felt income squeeze will cause Brits to closely consider their grocery budgets in 2023. For the same reason, consumers in the UK will increase the number of at-home meals that they have. Money-saving products and solutions, such as sourcing cheaper ingredients, and batch cooking, will take increasing appeal amongst at-home cooks.

Meanwhile, supermarkets are seeking to promote less food waste with the removal of best before / use by dates from some products. One supermarket has gone as far as introducing energy saving cooking instructions for their own-label products. Consumers are notably switching to own-label products in an effort to save money, which could pressure premium brands to justify their value.

Consumer Home Cooking Attitudes and Key Trends

In the UK, over 40% of adults who prepare meals for their households use a combination of unprepared and prepared ingredients, while prepared meals (i.e. ready meals, pizza) are served much less frequently. This trend has remained similar since 2018, but in terms of age, there is more variation in home cooking behaviour. The 16-24 age range is most likely to cook with prepared meals, while the over 65s are most likely to cook from scratch.

Consumers are also leaning towards meat-free more as sustainability comes into focus for those cooking in the home. Meat substitutes could benefit from this trend, but the higher cost of meat substitutes make them less relevant as incomes are squeezed, and chickpeas or legumes can replace them as cheaper alternatives.

• Home cooking consumer behaviour: 41% of UK adults would batch cook if they needed to save money.
• Home cooking market trends: 51% of consumers want to see more ‘wonky’ fruit and veg options.
• Home cooking market challenges: 35% of Brits are switching to own-label products, challenging premium brand variants.

Future Trends in the Home Cooking Market

In the next 2-3 years, as pressures on household incomes ease, competition from foodservice will return. This means that at-home cooked meals will be reduced. Despite this, many households will remain cautious in their spending and economising habits will linger.

Following on from this, Mintel predicts that from 2026-2028, the cooking from scratch trend will continue to increase in popularity. This will come as consumers focus more on health. Additionally, the meat reduction trend is expected to continue to grow as sustainability becomes more important for UK adults. Brands can position themselves as helpful to consumers in this transition to meat-free by providing, for example, plant-based recipes.

To discover more about consumer cooking habits and food purchasing trends, read our 2022 report on UK Cooking Sauces, or take a look at our extensive Food Market Research Reports.

Quickly Understand

• Cooking habits for the evening meal, including cooking completely or partly from scratch and using prepared meals.
• Approaches those cooking in the home would be most likely to take in order to save money, including changing cooking methods or seeking cheaper inputs.
• Behaviours of home cooks related to choice of meals and ingredients.
• Interest in recipe inspiration for familiar products and supermarket meal bundles.
• Attitudes towards home cooking, such as around nutritionally balanced meals.
• Covers leading supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, and Iceland.

Expert Analysis from a Food and Drink Specialist

This report, written by Alice Pilkington, a leading analyst in the Food & Drink sector, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends in the Home Cooking  market and add expert context to the numbers.