Catering Trends: Convenience Food

The UK restaurant industry is worth in excess of 38 billion pounds. With over 86,000 restaurants in the sector,1.7 million Brits are said to eat out at least once a week spending an average of around 18 pounds.

Along with veganism, sustainability and technology, people's tastes and preferences are changing. Now more than ever, the industry is having to adapt to changing consumer habits.

Infographic Source: Jill Weatherburn

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People are tending to lead more of a fast-paced lifestyle due to work commitments, this also means that need for convenient meals is heavily demanded to cater for consumers that are after nutritious and quick meals. In the UK there has been a 5% growth in pre-prepared salads in 2017 and a projected growth rate of 64% by 2022, with chilled ready meals expected to grow by 43% if consumer needs are met.

Why do people use convenient/pre-prepared meals?

Advantages:

• Quick and Easy to Prepare. This benefit can be the main reason why consumers choose these convenient meals, a lot of the time no preparation is required, and they can eat their meal on-the-go and get on with the rest of their day. In a recent survey it was found that 41% of Brits who have bought lunch to eat out of home in the last month say they eat more on-the-go than sit-down meals, and 50% of those consumers are employed full-time.
• Wide Variety. Due to the demand for convenient/pre-prepared meals this means that the food industry is continuously producing new options and flavours, and more of the industry are catering for consumers with specific lifestyles such as veganism. Alike most other retailers, Sainsburys offer food-on-the go options and they saw an increase of 6.9% of convenient food sales which outperformed the market and this is due to the wider variety of options that they are offering.

Disadvantages:

• Low in nutrients. Pre-prepared meals lose a lot of nutrients by the time you get to eat it, foods are richer in nutrients when they come directly from the source. In a 2015 survey, out of 166 pre-prepared meals only a one fifth of them were low in fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar. This shows the nutritional value of consuming pre-prepared meals, although the convenience of them is greatly appreciated by consumers it does come with drawbacks.
• Packaging leaves it mark on environment When purchasing fresh food, the use of packaging is reduced, but when people are consuming convenient meals they are then discarding of the packaging. Sandwiches are the most popular “quick-meal” and 54.5% of Brits purchase pre-prepared sandwiches, this number then reflects on packaging waste which we spoke about in one of our previous blogs which you can read here.

Nature's Way Foods

Nature’s Way are a food manufacturer that create convenient foods that are fresh, filling and great for on-the-go. Their main aspect was to provide the food market with something that no one else offered, by undertaking numerous consumer surveys they found a demand for lighter food that was filling and gave consumers the ability to eat a salad on the go. By understanding the food market and the demands from consumers, Natures Way managed to put together a wide range of on-the-go products which were successfully launched in 2015 for Tescoand now five years later are working with companies such as Pret A Manger, Mcdonald's and Itsu.

Some of the products they offer include:

• Potato Salads
• Coleslaw
• Noodles
• Protein-Based Salad Meals

What's your favourite bag of salad? Our chefs created these delicious salad bowls using our bagged salads that you can find in UK Supermarkets! ??

26 Likes, 2 Comments - Natures Way Foods (@natureswayfoods) on Instagram: "What's your favourite bag of salad? Our chefs created these delicious salad bowls using our bagged..."

Consumers are still after convenience, but what about steering away from pre-prepared meals and instead creating meals from a kit that includes all fresh ingredients and a step by step recipe to make it easier than coming up with a meal from scratch.

Hello Fresh are a company that allow you to choose easy-to-follow recipes and conveniently drop off all the ingredients needed to your door. By still maintaining that convenience, all ingredients are correctly portioned to be divided out between the amount of people being fed and packaging is reduced due to fruits and vegetables not being packaged. It is seeming to be very beneficial as one consumer said "Great for busy people who can’t be bothered to think of new recipes or for those who can’t cook as recipes easy to follow." , this shows that convenience doesn’t always have to be pre-prepared and have the ability to be cooked in 5 minutes or less.

Hello Fresh have various recipe boxes that have a variety of different flavours and textures, some of which are:

• Beef Kofta Curry which is sure to look good from any of the tableware featured in the 'Curry' section of our latest Look Book.
• Mango Chutney Glazed Spiced Chicken Breast which will beautifully present on the tableware featured in the 'Chicken' section of our latest Look Book, specifically our exclusive Alto Coupe Plate.
• Veggie Coconut Caribbean Soup will look stunning in the tableware from our 'Soup' section inside our Look Book, especially inside our Revol Conic White Bowl.

??Next Week's Menu Preview ??Fresh Prawn Green Thai Curry, Buttery Fennel and Sausage Pasta or a classic Cheese Burger with Wedges and Homemade Slaw. Let us know, what's going in your box? Tap the link in the bio to try ????? .? .? .? #Delicious #Food #Recipe #Inspiration #HelloFreshUK #RecipeKit #RecipeShare #RecipeIdeas #EasyRecipes

225 Likes, 12 Comments - HelloFresh (@hellofreshuk) on Instagram: "??Next Week's Menu Preview ??Fresh Prawn Green Thai Curry, Buttery Fennel and Sausage Pasta or a..."

Do you think you’ll stick to convenient meals? The popularity with convenient and pre-prepared meals is always on the rise, with a constant change of food trends the industry is trying to keep up with demand for wider variety of on-the-go foods that will satisfy the needs of consumers. The food industry is implementing more ways to provide nutritional meals that are quick and easy for consumers, this should be a trend that will continue to grow with the demand from consumers.

Look out for more catering trends on our blog over the next coming weeks, providing tips on how to improve your commercial business.

Enjoyed this article? Read our Catering Trends: Customisable Menus article where talk about the increase for meal customisation within the food industry. Read it Here

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