To think processed and pre cooked food is way too common in this country?

[HotPotLove]

Before you all start yelling at me, I know that there are of course millions of households that eat a healthy diet, cook from scratch all the time, carefully choose ingredients etc etc. But my feeling as a foreigner (have been living in the UK for almost a decade though) is that ultra processed food, pre cooked and ready meals etc are very much normalised here and part of most people every day life. It’s pretty obvious just by looking at the supermaket aisles really.
Curious to know if people are generally trying to stay away from these and make healthier choices or whether it is generally so embedded into our lives that we are not even noticing?
Second disclaimer is that I am not pointing any fingers, infact I often buy these myself but what makes me think about this is that I would have never bought these types of meals when living back in my own country (also less available than here overall)

Around 40% of Italians are overweight…that doesn’t sound great.

I’ve been to supermarkets (when camping, so cooking a lot) throughout France and Germany and there are huge amounts of snacks and fizzy drinks on offer there. No less than supermarkets here. And in Italy and Germany, large amounts of cured meats which are known carcinogens. I’m not sure the rest of Europe is doing that much better than we are. Not in 2025 anyway.

What you actually said in your opening post was ' ready meals etc are very much normalised here and part of most people every day life'. I understand you're speaking from your personal experience but that's simply not the case. Your perception reflects your budget and where you shop.

Another thing that perhaps influences peoples' food choices - how bloody early it gets cold, dark, wet and miserable over here!

Personally I find I'm far more susceptible to saying 'soddit, let's have a curry, or an M&S stew or tagine' when it's cold and dark at 3pm, wanting nothing more than to snuggy on down in my pj's with a book, then eating something carby and fatty - even better if it's followed up with a hot pudding and cream.

When the weather is better, and the days are longer, I'm more likely to eat a lighter meal, and enjoy the ritual of prepping it.

It isn’t denial to want to know why it’s happening in other countries too who traditionally have a much more food focused and positive culture than is. It’d be genuinely interesting and helpful to know.

My take would be that the many and varied forces (e.g. unfettered capitalism and globalisation) that have caused this food culture shift in the US, and to a lesser extent the UK, and then a lesser extent than that the rest of Europe (to varying degrees), have been more limited to date but are growing.

France have very strong educational policies towards food, and lots more regulation (e.g. to be called a bakery you have to make your bread on site from scratch, and to use the word baguette has rules and a fixed maximum price). Plus, they have been more rural than the UK and industrialisation (and associated removal from traditional food culture) came much later. Even things like labour laws that ensure proper lunch breaks have helped them hang on to a culture of eating proper food rather than fast food (I'm aware France has so many McDonald's but I'm talking about all types of fast food). Finally, I think a lot of the UPF products have been driven by US companies, and language and culture barriers to moving into the UK are lower so it's natural that things emanate from there to the UK before other countries.

I do think there's an element of what is considered "good food" as well. I know I struggle to persuade myself to spend more money on oil for example because it's "just for cooking in and you don't notice" - which isn't true but it's a mindset that's hard to shake as sometimes you DONT notice the quality and feel annoyed as it's so expensive. Also, in the past it's been harder to grow those really fresh healthy foods like a great tomato or whatever.

I can think of so many other factors....but I don't doubt that processed food is coming for all cultures unless something changes.

OP, half French here and I do agree. We eat way too much crap as a family so I’m certainly not on a high horse, but I think there is another factor - quality of produce. Your example of simple pasta with cherry tomatoes probably wouldn’t taste amazing because the tomatoes we get in the UK supermarkets are pretty bland. Produce aisles are stocked with tasteless, out of season foods that have probably been frozen in transit. And a limited variety too. It’s not exactly mouthwatering or inspiring. Go to a produce aisle in France and you’ll see juicy, fat tomatoes, things like endives, cauliflowers the size of your head, foods that are sourced mainly in the same country and are seasonal. If we expect blueberries in January we’re not going to get taste or quality. That’s a cultural thing, nobody outside of chefs really get seasonal stuff, other than knowing that July is the best season for strawberries (because we grow them).

I admit this does influence me too, my kitchen is freezing and isolated from the rest of the house. In summer chatting over salad prep is much more a thing.
And I can't stand slow cooker food, before it is mentioned.

Pasta with a few tomatoes is just a bowl of carbs with a bit of veg. Not a balanced meal

Bullshit. It absolutely is. Don't forget the "carbs" also contain protein if you are using fresh egg pasta, which most Italians (and me) use. You also have tomatoes, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, and wine, not forgetting the olive oil too. You can add chillies, or olives. That's several of your thirty different things for the week.

If you want to be more "balanced", I use the same base sauce and throw in some clams. Cheap as chips if you buy the frozen ones.

This is such an interesting thread @HotPotLove imo opinion I think that there are many reasons why this is the case in the UK.

I think it's important to acknowledge that a large part of it is to do with our government and the deals they do with large companies. It's not a coincidence that ready made meals are so cheap and available in our supermarkets.

Another thing is a lot of people in the UK don't know how to cook. My mum has always said that when the microwave was introduced to the UK that people opted for that as the new trend so I think that that has killed a lot of skills being passed down through the generations.

People are addicted to sugar and salt and prefer to eat ready made meals.

People are tired from working long hours, our society isnt set up to help people live healthy lives.

I completely agree with you re people don't need to cook a huge meal with a million vegetables or meat in them but most people in the UK wouldn't entertain that thought for 5 minutes. That being said when I was in Sicily a few years ago, most of the school children were obese and on their lunch breaks could be seen eating fast food such as burgers and chips. I think that it is becoming a problem in Europe too so maybe its a case of a change in the world rather than individual countries, is globalisation and large companies profiting not the main reason for this?

I think its good to reflect as a nation where we are going wrong. We are letting our children become obese, and leading many of them to a shortened life and/or a life with significant health issues leading to a much poorer quality of life.
If we can't take a bit of true criticism for their sakes that's really pathetic.

You can buy fabulous fresh produce in the UK. If you think everything is tasteless, you need to shop elsewhere.

I'm the opposite. In summer I want to be outside but in bad weather, I love being holed up in the kitchen doing some baking or chopping a load of stuff for a soup or stew and listening to the radio.

Bullshit. It absolutely is. Don't forget the "carbs" also contain protein if you are using fresh egg pasta, which most Italians (and me) use.

Most Italians certainly do not use 'fresh egg pasta' on a daily basis. I used to live there and it was dried packaged pasta all the time, exactly like hyere. That's what you'll see aisles full of in any Italian supermarket. They may eat 'fresh egg pasta' on special occasions or in restaurants, but it certainly is not the norm.

It's not a mud slinging match; it's a statement of fact. We do have an obesity crisis and often make poor food choices. Armed with facts we can then go about making healthy changes. Or alternatively, we could deny them and decide to be insulted instead.

I don't think we can lay all the blame at the conglomerates' door. One of the reasons I choose to work part time is so I can spend more time cooking good food because it's important to me but I can guarantee you that if I were working full time I would be serving up a lot of ready meals. Not because I like eating them but it's a simple equation of time available versus need to eat and live.

I'm from Spain where my children have amazing school dinners, so different to English school dinners. They have four courses every lunchtime, always including a salad course. They have fish and lentils or other pulses regularly. They have a fast food day on Fridays which includes pizza or burgers or nuggets and chips but the rest of the time it's very balanced and healthy. I can't imagine how I would have reacted to being served lentils as part of an English school dinner, but it wouldn't have been good. Sometimes my children moan about the food - like most kids they prefer a MaccyD's - but they get on and eat it because they've always had it and are perfectly used to it.

I'm not idealising though. There's a trend the last few years which I see as a kind of in-between stage bridging fresh cooking and fast food dependence, whereby the big supermarket chains have built prepared food counters for daily meals. Different kinds of pasta, paella, fish, curries. All sorts. It's cooked from scratch onsite and all day so it hasn't come vacuum sealed from a factory but it's still not like a home cooked meal where you can control exactly what goes into it. They're incredibly popular. I didn't think they'd take off at first but was surprised to find all my Spanish friends using them very regularly, several times a week sometime. I thought they were still going home and cooking their meals from scratch. Those who don't buy them tend to have their older relatives - mother, aunt, grandmother - nearby who aren't working and often spend the morning preparing the family meal. A grandmother lives opposite me and every day as we're leaving for school she's leaving too to go to the local shops and buy her fresh ingredients for that day's meal. Every single day. But she's retired and has the freedom to do that. I'm pretty sure my grandmother generally did the same.

We have the supermarket meals occasionally and if I were working full time we'd have them a lot more. They're definitely healthier than a Burger King but they are symptomatic of a trend. A trend I believe isn't just driven by advertising and sugar addiction but by the prevalence of two-parents-working famillies, which was much rarer a couple of generations ago.

You know we can, and do grow many varieties of very tasty tomatoes in this country? In summer the supermarkets have loads of choice, and in the winter, eat tomatoes if you want, or choose something else in season that will also taste great.

I'm from Spain where my children have amazing school dinners, so different to English school dinners. They have four courses every lunchtime, always including a salad course. They have fish and lentils or other pulses regularly.

And yet childhood obesity has increased massively in Spain, and is now among the highest in Europe.

UPF and ready meals are available in a much higher quantity compared to other countries

Maybe "some" other countries. But not "all" other countries.

I don't know if you can draw the line here clearly between "has a weak/strong food culture", home cooking prevalence, and ready meals/UPF availability.

Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries are a good example here...I don't think anyone would say with a straight face that Japan has a "weak food culture", but the ready meals and UPF ubiquitous availability in Japan is on absolutely another level compared to the UK.

But why do we need to do it in isolation? Why aren’t the Italians facing up to their obesity crisis and changing their society for their children’s sake?

why is it all finger pointing and distraction? We know, we do it to Americans. It’s to point at the country doing it worse than you do you don’t have to deal with your own problems

The high st with its butchers and greengrocers etc is touted as being some kind of paradise before supermarkets. I'm just about old enough to remember it and my Mum hated it, she loves the convenience of the supermarket. The high st was a nightmare of dragging the kids and shopping from shop to shop, nowhere to change the baby, getting pissed wet through in winter, little choice, often not that fresh either. Yes, we've created a monster, but sometimes our specs are a bit too rosey.

There's protein in pasta !

On average, pasta contains about 6 grams of protein per 100 grams.

An adult female needs about 45gms protein a day. So if you add sprinkled parmesan cheese (which has 35gms protein per hundred grams) you're well on your way.

Italian food isn't just pasta and tomato sauce. They usually add a salad and garlic bread for balance.

Pasta and garlic bread? Carbs and carbs?

I mainly cook from scratch but I do use ready meals too - especially on holiday.

I am out of the house by 7:30 and back around 6pm. So if I want to exercise, do some housework, life admin etc. I’m left with little time to cook. Plus I have a regular hobby (no not cycling 🤭) that I have to get back out by 7:30pm at least one night a week.

I don’t always remember to get a (batch cooked) meal out of the freezer etc, so I do turn to Charlie Bigham on a regular basis I’m afraid 😳

It’s not money or know how for me it’s time! When I was a SAHM it was very rare for me to not cook a fresh meal from scratch every day (still ready meals in holidays though).

I agree. I'm old enough to remember all those high street shops, and while you could say having small, locally run shops helped build a sense of community, there were disadvantages too. The inconvenience, as you say, and the produce was usually nothing special either.

Supermarkets get slagged off, often for good reason, but the better ones offer a wide variety of excellent produce at much more affordable prices than the revered high street shops of yore.

I’m not surprised with four courses!