Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
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working outside the house, less time was available for household related tasks, including
grocery shopping and cooking. Divorce rates were also on the rise, which offered an additional
marketing opportunity for ready meals, as single men having to cook for themselves were
quickly identified as the primary targets of ready meal solutions. This had the unintended side
effect that ready meals became associated with loneliness. As the discrepancy between the
label on the packaging and the content of the meal became ever more obvious, the idea of the
ready meal seemed overhauled and the industry experienced its first slowdown in the 1970s
(Winterman, 2013).
The turnaround came when UK supermarket chain Marks & Spencer in 1979 introduced a first
‘chilled’ ready meal which quickly became the new pacemaker of the industry. It responded to
consumer demands for freshness and quality, while still capitalising on ongoing societal
changes, such as the increase in single person households, higher disposable incomes, greater
time pressures and (perceived) time-scarcity. Chilled ready meals are particularly successful in
the UK where according to industry figures the market is worth £10 billion per annum,
representing 13 percent of the retail food market and growing at 4 percent annually (Chilled
Foods Association, 2015a). Here the market is particularly diverse, offering a variety of
‘healthy’ food choices, such as ready-to-consume salads and fruit juices, and even ‘luxury’
products created by well-known TV chefs.
Not only because of the volume and range of products offered is the UK considered a
frontrunner in the ready food market. Unlike many value chains for unprocessed food, which
are often global in scope, ready meals are processed in the target markets close to the
consumer to avoid a break in the cool chain (products must continuously be stored at or below
8°C). This offers new opportunities for added value in the UK. UK manufacturers additionally
implement a full Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach for strict
temperature controls and traceability of raw materials (Chilled Foods Association, 2015b).
Delivery to retailers – where nearly all ready meal products are sold under the retailer’s brand
– is based on short production runs, often on the day of production. These high demands in
terms of logistics, technology, marketing knowledge/capacity and other financial or human
resources also pose, next to trade tariffs, an insurmountable barrier to many developing
countries to access the ready meal markets (Vander Stichele & van der Wal, 2006).
Despite the undisputable popularity of ready meals, food and nutrition experts, scientists and
politicians have repeatedly voiced concerns over the health effects of ready meals – not to
mention their implications for societal and family structures. Scientific studies seem in unison
when they showcase the poor nutritional content of such food: Ready meals tend to be high in
fat, calories and sodium, and low in carbohydrates, fibre, calcium or iron (Howard et al., 2012;
Celnik et al., 2012). Not surprisingly thus, ready meals are readily associated with less healthy
diets, obesity and other chronic health-related diseases (Jabs & Devine, 2006). This is certainly
not the image that the industry wants to portray, especially not now that the ready meal has
managed to shed its shabby image. The UK Chilled Foods Association, for instance, pushes
chilled ready meals as “fresh, local, made by experts, good for employment and crucial for the
economy” (Chilled Foods Association, 2015a).