BRITS now spend more on pasta than pies when they buy ready meals.
Quick Italian dishes such as lasagne have overtaken the likes of cottage or shepherd’s pie in UK supermarkets.
Spending on the traditional convenience grub has fallen by nearly five per cent to £523million over the past year. But the amount spent on Italian ready meals has gone up, slightly, by 0.7 per cent to £550million.
But while it shows how tastes are changing for easy-to-make dishes, the sector as a whole is stagnating.
The trend for cooking from scratch has affected the market, as have other factors such as the move to more meat-free and vegan cooking.
Annual ready meal sales went up by just 0.1 per cent to £1.7billion in the 12 months to the end of July, according to the figures from analysts Kantar for trade magazine The Grocer.
At the same time, sales of ingredients and meal kits such as Mexican fajitas or Indian curries have gone up by eight per cent to £535million a year.
Kantar analyst Flora Zwolinski said: “Ready meals are certainly feeling the effects of the plant-based trend. While not necessarily cutting out meat, we see a rise in consumers looking to reduce meat consumption.”
The Grocer reported: “The rise in ingredients, rather than ready meals, comes from the general move towards cooking from scratch.”
TV shows such as The Great British Bake Off have also encouraged more home cooking.