Who doesn’t like a ready meal once in a while? People in the UK certainly do: consumption of ready meals and convenience meat products has increased five-fold over the last 40 years, according to the latest National Food Survey on UK food-buying habits. High levels of calories and fat in some of these products can be spotted on the label. But there are other concerns about the nutritional value of some ready meals – things you won’t find on the label.
Lost nutrients
One concern is the way these foods are cooked. Cooking processes can be just as important for our health as the sugar, salt and fat content. Beetroot turning cooking water purple is a vivid example of how nutrients (antioxidants called betalains) can be lost. But other nutrients disappear unnoticed into the cooking water, such as B vitamins from leafy vegetables, and anticancer glucosinolates from members of the cabbage family. At home, we can minimise this by steaming vegetables or using the cooking water. But we have no control over the making of convenience foods and ready meals. Do firms that make these products take care to prepare ready meals in ways that preserve the nutrients? We simply don’t know.
Labelling on ready meals tends to be limited to fat, sugar and salt. Makers of ready meals don’t have to label total vitamin content, and probably don’t bother figuring out how many of the myriad of cancer-preventing compounds in plant foods are lost during production. Even when they do mention vitamins on their labels, this can just mean that the vitamins were in the raw ingredients. It’s not an indication of what remains in the end product.
Some makers of ready meals compromise health by substituting healthy ingredients with less healthy ones. For instance, rapeseed oil is common in ready-prepared Mediterranean dishes such as hummus and pizzas, even though they are traditionally made using virgin olive oil. Virgin olive oil has well-established health benefits against cardiovascular disease and possibly even against breast cancer, but there is no evidence for these benefits with rapeseed oil.
The global ready meals market size is expected to reach USD 294.70 billion by 2025 registering a CAGR of 4.3%, according to a new report by Radiant Insights, Inc. Ready meals are highly convenient and help save time and efforts required for meal preparation.
In addition, these meals are a cost-effective and convenient alternative as they are precooked and thus require less preparation time.
North America held the largest share of the global market in 2018 and will continue growing at a healthy CAGR during the forecast years owing to increasing target population.
Asia Pacific is the second-largest regional market owing to rising population, consumer disposable income, and rapid industrialization in emerging economies, such as India and China.
Further key findings from the report suggest: • The canned product type segment is projected to ascend at the fastest CAGR of 4.84% over the forecast years • North America is estimated to be the dominant regional market by 2025; however, Central & South America is projected to expand at the maximum growth rate of 5.7% from 2019 to 2025 • Some of the key companies in the ready meals market are ConAgra Brands, Inc.; Nestle S.A.; Kraft Heinz Company; Chao Xiang Yuan Food Co. Ltd.; Dr. Oetker; BRF S.A.; Berkshire; General Mills; Massa Leve; and Tyson Foods • Most of these manufacturers focus on product development and capacity and portfolio expansion to estimate existing and future demand patterns from upcoming application segments Browse Full Research Report with TOC @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/ready-meals-market Table of Contents Chapter 1.
Industry Value Chain Analysis 3.3.1.
