Maximising free time
In general, people are increasingly feeling time-pressured and are looking for solutions to free up and maximise leisure time. This has largely been influenced by changes in lifestyles and family structures, increased personal wealth and an increasing and active older generation.
Even in developing regions such as Central Europe and Asia, rapid urbanisation has resulted in people moving away from traditional, rural lifestyles to busier, city lifestyles that are typically characterised by a greater reliance on convenience products.
No compromise on convenience
With the ever-growing number of technological innovations people have become used to products and services which offer instantaneity and alleviation from household chores. They expect things to take a shorter amount of time and, today, many people are so accustomed to being able to buy products or services that offer some form of convenience that ‘doing without’ is no longer an option.
For food, this means looking for products that reduce the time spent planning and preparing meals. As such, fresh prepared foods are an attractive solution for those who lack the time and skills to cook meals from scratch. Buying a ready-made sandwich wrap or salad to eat on-the-go, stir frying a pack of prepared vegetables or microwaving a fully prepared meal, offers valuable convenience to today’s busy consumers.
Changing eating patterns
As people’s lifestyles have become busier, so their eating patterns have changed. There has been a marked shift from the tradition of eating three formal meals a day to more flexible relaxed occasions. It is not unusual today for people to eat at their desk, in the car or in front of the television rather than at the conventional dinner table. Many fresh prepared foods are packaged specifically to meet this demand for flexible and ‘on the move’ eating. For example, ready-to-eat salad meals come with a plastic fork and fresh prepared fruits are pre-cut into bite-size pieces.
Read our section on the Health mega-trend.