We’ve all been guilty of returning home from the commercial property workplace and not feeling particularly motivated to cook a healthy meal from scratch. After a busy day, sautéing vegetables and messing around with hot oil seems like far more effort than it’s worth. Thank goodness for the ready meal, right?
Well, in an effort to stretch the average consumer’s budget that little bit further, commercial property supermarket chain Tesco will be selling ready meals with a shelf life of 18 months. According to The Grocer, the magazine of the food and drinks industry, these meals could help consumers save money on storage costs – in other words, taking up less space in the fridge or freezer and therefore allowing them to run more efficiently and cheaply.
The meals will also help cut back on waste as they can be kept for longer without consumers having to worry about the use-by date.
However, The Grocer also pointed out that some critics have questioned whether consumers will be getting a high quality of produce, or if the taste and nutrition will be compromised, therefore proving the meals to be unpopular in commercial property supermarkets.
Designed by food production giants Princes, the meals follow the success of the Bistro Express range by Enterprise Retail, which have a shelf life of 12 months and are currently being sold in commercial property supermarket chain Nisa stores. Bistro Express long life ready meals are available in 350 Nisa stores across the UK and have been praised for their quality, taste and value for money by commercial property supermarket consumers.
Princes will launch several different flavours of ready meal, including chilli con carne, chicken supreme, beef in red wine sauce with potato and chicken curry. They will be retailed in Tesco stores and will cost £1.79 for a 320 gram pack.
Marketing Director of Princes, Neil Brownbill, said; “We are combining our brand strength in the ambient sector with new product development that can drive frequency of purchase and incremental growth.”
In an age where convenience foods and commercial property retailers such as McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken go from strength to strength, consumers want all the taste and quality of a full meal without the need to spend a lot of time producing it. This has seen the ready meals market’s popularity skyrocket in recent years, as more and more supermarket consumers struggle to balance work, social life and healthy living.
Additionally, the economic downturn has meant that consumers are constantly on the hunt for a bargain and value for money – yet so many cheap ready meals have a shelf life of only a few days and require chilled or even frozen conditions for storage, racking up energy bills both in commercial properties and in the home.
Perhaps, should Princes’ range prove successful on the shelves, more commercial property supermarkets will look into creating their own brands of long life meals, saving their customers time, energy and money in their pursuit of a nutritious evening meal.
