The UK Ready to Eat Food Market Report identifies consumers’ attitudes towards ready meals and ready-to-cook foods, factors prioritised when purchasing ready meals and future innovations in the ready-to-eat food market. This report covers the ready meals market size, market forecast, market segmentation and industry trends for the UK ready meals market.
Ready to Eat Foods – Current Market Landscape
Growing pressures on household incomes will lead some consumers to curb their dining out behaviours, enabling the ready meals and ready-to-cook food market to step in as a more affordable alternative. There are increasing opportunities to tap into the at-home lunch occasions which have enlarged due to the growing number of hybrid workers.
However, high food inflation may also prompt some to trade down within the category, purchasing own-brand ready-to-cook food labels or even switching to home cooking.
Ready to Eat Foods – Market Share and Key Industry Statistics
An increased focus on health over the long term and the strong perceptions of home cooking as healthy will make it crucial for brands in the UK ready meal market to continue to explore healthier NPD, with a focus on the increasingly significant flexitarian trend.
The proposed introduction of HFSS volume price promotion bans in late 2022 will have a limited impact on the ready meals market size.
- 30% of UK consumers would purchase a dish that would take a long time to cook from scratch.
- 27% of UK consumers would purchase a dish that was nutritionally complete.
- 63% of UK adults agree that they purchase ready meals as an alternative to having a takeaway.
- 50% of UK consumers agree that further information about how the ready meal was produced would make them more trustworthy.
Future Trends in the UK Ready-to-Cook Food Market
Providing consumers with greater transparency about ingredients can not only combat fears around products from the ready to cook food market being processed but also provides an opportunity to boost their convenience proposition by highlighting complicated and time-intensive techniques.
The ageing population poses challenges to the ready meals market size going forward, with the number of core younger users of the category declining. Responding to the predicted long-term interest in flexitarianism and health will be crucial going forward, whilst improved cooking skills in the home will remain an ongoing threat.
Read on to discover more details or take a look at all of our UK Food Market Research.
Understand Quickly
- Usage of ready meals and ready-to-cook foods overall and among key demographics
- Key trends in recent launch activity and opportunities going forward
- Factors prioritised by consumers when choosing a ready meal and ready-to-cook food
- Consumer behaviours and attitudes related to ready meals market and ready-to-cook food market
- Concepts of interest in ready meals and ready-to-cook foods
- Explores the ready meals market size and ready-to-eat food market share.
Covered in this Report
Products: Chilled, frozen and ambient ready meals, ready-to-cook foods, non-pastry pies.
Brands: BOL, Blooming Good Food Co., Morrisons (Plant Revolution), Lidl (Vemondo), M&S (Plant Kitchen), beyond Meat, Bosh!, tesco (Wicked Kitchen), Princes, Plot9, Branston, Veetee, Itsu, Leon, Wasabi, Côte (Côte at Home), Zizzi, Carluccio’s, Sainsbury’s, Pizza Express, Chiquito, Cathedral City, Amazon (The Kitchen), Mindful Chef, Greggs, TGI Fridays, Harry Ramdsden, Iceland, Waitrose, Nestlé, Pilgrim’s (Food Masters), The Gym Kitchen, Wild Hare, Ocado, General Mills (Old El Paso), Wiltshire Farms Foods, Charlie Bigham’s, the Vegetarian, Meatless Farm, Heinz,Huel, Giovanni Rana Pasta.
Expert Analysis from a Specialist in the Field
This report, written by Alice Pilkington, a leading analyst in the Food and Drink sector, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends and add expert context to the numbers.
“While incomes feel squeezed in 2022, ready meals/ready-to-cook foods can offer an affordable alternative to eating out. Making healthy ingredients visible will help the category respond to the predicted long-term focus on health, whilst interest in shelf-stable, vegetable-based ready meals points to an opportunity for the segment to tap into the increasingly significant flexitarian trend. Providing greater transparency on production can also help build trust.”
Alice Pilkington
Food and Drink Analyst