With consumers focused on healthy eating and saving money on eating out, meal prep is a fast-growing trend. PH finds out how suppliers are catering for this movement and what the latest launches are.
You only need to scroll Instagram for a few minutes before you’re hit with recipe ideas for healthy, nutritious meal prep at the moment. As a practice, meal prep saves time, money and effort, while often helping health conscious consumers to track calories, macros and stay on track with healthy eating and calorie control.
Meal prep’s huge range of benefits include the ability to easily access healthy, nutritious meals. Sarah van der Vorst, food enjoyment category manager at Brabantia explains: “Consumers are increasingly concerned about the impact of ultra-processed foods and want to eat more homemade foods. ‘Vegan’, ‘healthy’ and ‘plant-based’ rank among the top 10 food hashtags and vegetable consumption and fermented foods are growing in popularity.”
The cost-of-living crisis has also driven the trend as meal prep helps to save food waste, energy consumption and more. Maria Spagnuolo, senior marketing manager at OXO EMEA, outlines: “The meal prep sector has seen steady growth over the years, with a significant surge during the cost-of-living crisis. According to a GlobalData 2024 survey, 46.1% of consumers now meal prep, with 63.4% citing cost savings as their primary motivation.
“As household budgets remain under pressure, meal prep is no longer just a trend, for many, it has become a lifestyle.”
To read the full feature in the latest issue of Progressive Housewares magazine, simply click here.
