Under lockdown it was inevitable that Britain’s meal preparation habits would see a major shift. With people suddenly stuck at home for long periods, a greater focus on getting meals ready became a reality for many of us – either out of choice as a distraction, or out of necessity from, for example, suddenly having a whole family to feed at every meal, every day.
To better understand how habits have changed and what they will look like as we emerge from the pandemic, we undertook research earlier this year exploring Britain’s meal preparation trends.
From this, and building upon a recent infographic and related webinar of topline findings, we have produced a report exploring the key insights from our research and what these mean for those in the food and drink sector keen to leverage the new opportunities created by changing culinary habits.
In the report we explore:
- Quantifying the growing prominence of meal preparation
- Its context within wider food habits – e.g. supermarket deliveries, takeaways etc.
- The balance between those who claim to enjoy preparing meals and those who do not
- Whether consumers intend to keep new lockdown habits – not just meal prep, but e.g. home working
- The rise – and future potential of – meal kit and recipe box services
Amongst the highlights within the report, we reveal how:
- 40% of adults with responsibility for meal preparation claim to spend more time preparing meals now than before the pandemic
- 59% of those with children at home claim to have been preparing more meals as a result of the pandemic, compared to 33% of those with meal preparation responsibilities generally
- 32% of adults claim to enjoy preparing meals more now than before COVID-19, but 35% of adults say they find meal preparation tedious
- Nearly a quarter of adults who cook meals from scratch using raw ingredients expect to do so more often post-pandemic
- Over a third of adults who have ordered meal kit or recipe box services claim they anticipate doing this more often post-pandemic
To access the full report, please fill in the short form below.