Stay ahead of the curve and future-proof your business with Mintel’s UK Ready Meals and Ready-to-Cook Foods Market Report 2023. Our full report is packed with consumer-led market intelligence, the latest UK ready meals market research, trends and consumer behaviours affecting your business. Get a 360° view of the ready-to-cook food market, including market size, share and forecasted growth to help you align your business strategy with the needs of your audience.
Below, we’ve handpicked the key insights analysed in the full report and summarised the core topics.
Volume sales in the ready-to-cook food market fell in 2023, as household finances remained under pressure, continuing to boost the appeal of home cooking. The cost of living crisis also prompted trading down within the category.
Cater to plant-based diets
The flexitarian trend is now firmly mainstream. As the trend continues to become more established, products that make it easy to reduce meat intake are likely to chime. Ready meals and ready-to-cook foods have strong potential to lean into this, being widely seen as an easy way to bring more plant-based foods into one’s diet.
Communicate nutritional benefits
A third of category buyers and users agree that being nutritionally complete signals good value for money for ready meals and ready-to-cook food. The strong value connotations of this proposition point to an opportunity for the ready-to-eat food market to deliver comprehensive nutrition to win favour in the short term.
To learn more about the read-to-cook food market market, including a five-year forecast, consumer behaviour analysis, and market opportunities recommendations, purchase our full UK Ready Meals and Ready-to-Cook Foods Market Report.
Sainsbury’s, M&S, Myprotein, Allplants, Strong Roots, Heinz, Goodfella’s, Deliciously Ella, Crosta & Mollica, Veetee, Ben’s.
This report, written by Isabelle Shilling, a leading food analyst, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight trends in the UK ready meals market and add expert context to the numbers.
The income squeeze has seen total volumes fall and prompted trading down. Better-for-you and plant-based NPD hold potential moving forward.
Isabelle Shilling
Research Analyst
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.
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