From my research, I have discovered that “low-cost” for a ready-meal will mean somewhere in the region of £1.50 to £3.00. This should not be too hard to stick to, but I will have to make sure I avoid expensive foods that ...
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From my research, I have discovered that “low-cost” for a ready-meal will mean somewhere in the region of £1.50 to £3.00. This should not be too hard to stick to, but I will have to make sure I avoid expensive foods that will push up the cost. I would ideally like my meal to cost below £2.50, which will make it one of the cheaper products on the market.
As there are so many different varieties of frozen meals on the market at the moment, finding a gap is quite difficult. Although there are virtually no types of meal that have not been made into a ready-meal format, (everything from roast dinners to curry is available) some foods are under-represented. The main ones I will pick out are fish products and pies.
As most of the meals I researched were described as “healthy”, I will have to make sure that the nutritional values of my meal are similar or better, otherwise my product will be at a disadvantage to others.
As the most common packaging was plastic trays and card outer casing, I think that this must be the best combination of materials for packaging a ready-meal. The materials are easy to dispose of as they can be compacted easily and the card is easy to print on, allowing information to be cheaply placed on the outer casing.
The cookery books I looked in all said that shortcrust pastry and roux sauce would freeze better than other varieties, so these will be the first ones I try, although I may experiment with others to get my own results when I develop my final product.
From the questionnaire I carried out, I found out that the majority of people buy ready-meals often, so I will be certain of a large market. For my two chosen ingredients that are less common, most people said they would buy a product containing fish, and a high percentage said they would buy a pie-related ready-meal.
Of the people I asked, most said that their preferred ingredient in a ready-meal was chicken, with pasta and rice also popular. Therefore, my product should try to incorporate at least one of these ingredients.
Specification
My product must:
- Cost under £2.50
- Be “healthy”
- Be packaged in plastic and card
- Contain a roux sauce or shortcrust pastry if it has a sauce or pastry
- Contain an ingredient that is known to appeal to people
- Fill a gap in the market
- Be a self-contained meal
