Ready Meals Consumers

People under 35, living in big cities with medium-high status are the consumer of prepared foods.

Up till 2008, the ready meals consume at Spanish home increased by 2,4 % .

The most consumers of precooked meals are people under 35, who live in populations of more than 500.000 and medium-high status. Up till 2008, the consume increased by 2,4 % and has reached near 30 daily grams per person, according to Gregorio Varela, the president of the Spanish Foundation of Nutrition (FEN).
Nevertheless, in Spain this increasing trend is less compared to other countries, such as England or United States, where the consumption of prepared meals supposes half of the diet. Within the country, Canary Islands is the higher consumer, while Galicia is at the bottom of the national rank.
The president of FEN emphasize that people under 35 are the typical consumers of this type of food, due to the fact that "the development of this food is quite new in the society, reason why it is more popular between youth". Furthermore, the consumptions grow is strictly linked to the "problems of food availability, people have less and less time to cook ".
"It permits to respect the food pyramid, with the possibility to consume fruits and vegetables five times per day. Many of this new meals have the same quality as restaurant dishes", said the president of FEN. In this way you can fully follow the Mediterranean diet.
As believed by Mr. Versela, what the consumers search in food is convenience, pleasure, health and safety. He assured that people are ready to pay more for healthy and safe products, the food industry has changed the processes in order to reduce salt and saturated fat. In addition, nowadays the major food safety is provided by the prepared food, “in fact, it is proved that safety food problems came from places where processing industry is less developed”, he concluded.

Source: www.consumer.es