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)

I would love to have a link

That’s super interesting! Thanks for sharing. Looks roughly as one would expect, I think.

I have lived in various European countries and still own a home in Europe. Each country has its positives and negatives. My issue is that a lot of posts on mumsnet refer to Europe (one homogeneous entity) usually when pitting it positively against the UK with sometimes little or no objectivity. That is what I find frustrating and ignorant.
My experience of living in Italy is that generally people have less processed food than the Uk. However, as has been noted, in my experience Spain, Greece and Italy (Italy less so) now have their fare share of processed foods and ready meals.

QVC sells meat pies?! :o

I get told my cooking needs salt, as I don't cook with it, but it's rare that I think a ready meal is too salty.

Ditto. I can't make bread to save my life.

I love cooking so cook from scratch most days.

There’s a documentary called The Men Who Made Us Fat, I think it was a BBC project. It’s very interesting, looking in depth at the way the food industry in the US and the UK steered people away from more traditional ways of eating - and started the obesity epidemic. In the UK the two key strategies were:

• introduce snacking on sugary, fatty foods to break the routine of three normal meals a day. Remember the finger of fudge? Just enough until it’s time to eat? The snack you can eat without ruining your appetite? They deliberately set out to expand / disrupt the ‘eating window’. And that’s something I really noticed when I moved from the UK to France in 2007. In the UK people pretty much ate wherever they wanted to, and it was seen as acceptable to snack when you wanted (thanks Cadburys and Greggs). In France, even now, adults do not snack. It’s seen as a thing that children do - and only at certain times ie after school goûter. There is no equivalent of Greggs and chocolate is, even now, perceived as something pretty luxurious to be enjoyed at certain times.
• make artificial, highly processed versions of popular restaurant meals available - things that people were interested in eating but didn’t necessarily cook themselves - curries and desserts initially. So a busy mum, who by this time is probably working, (so households are becoming more cash rich, time poor) can give her family ready made curries and Sarah Lee Chocolate Fudge Gateau for dinner rather than slogging away to peel veggies, cook meat, make gravy etc. to make something boring and old-fashioned that’s nothing like as tasty / salty / sugary / exotic as the ready meals.

The Uk came early to all of this, and it’s definitely coming to France. The cultural weaknesses that they have to exploit will be different, but it’s happening already. France is protected because it’s so so proud of it’s food culture, but the cracks are showing.

There is a reliance on ready meals and takeaways which has increased massively in the last few years. It’s not helped by people not having been taught to cook and time being tight.

I know a number of middle aged people who know how to cook but don’t bother using time as the reason, but then spend as much time sorting out ready meals and takeaways. There are loads of quick, easy and relatively nutritious meals that can be pulled together if people were a little more organised.

Meal planning made a massive difference to our household, as did batch cooking especially in winter months when we were not out and about on a weekend as much as we would be in lighter and warmer months. But I am of a generation that learnt to cook at home and with grandparents and also learnt to cook at school. Not only did we learn to cook but we also learnt about nutrition. I also view food as part of health. However, we are now moving to the third generation in some households who can’t cook which is extremely sad. At the same time there is so much accessible information out there about nutrition and how to cook. It’s very much a public health issue.

There will be people due to infirmity, disability etc who will struggle to be able to cook and are potentially at the mercy of a ready meals, but the majority of people are not in that position.

Thank you to whoever suggested the pasta and cherry tomatoes. I had forgotten to get what I was going to eat tonight out of the freezer, so used the last of the homegrown cherry tomatoes and ramped things up a bit with some leftover pesto, rocket, herbs, garlic and ground walnuts. All cooked and dished up in less than 15 mins.

I was quite shocked in Spain this summer, when we took a 1 hour bus journey between 2 little towns, at the number of fast food places along the motorway ( the usual suspects: Burger King, McDonalds etc).

Yep. No argument there. I see plenty of fat kids at my children's school - fortunately not mine - but it's definitely not because of what they're eating there. There are no vending machines, they don't get any choice what they eat at lunch as there's a set menu every day and that's it, and they don't have anywhere nearby to leave the school and go to the shops.

Did you live here when OG Turkey twizzlers existed?

....

I use James Morton's (he was on Bake Off) no-knead recipe. It's dead easy, not messy and I make all my own bread. I've got his 'Brilliant Bread' book but you might find the recipe if you Google it.

I couldnt agree more. We are also not from the uk but have lived in a few countires across 3 continents and travelled to many more. We often hear friends asking the same questions, and I agree it is more to do with the food culture unfortunately.

I’ve never done links on MN before but I’ll see if I can do it once I get home. I don’t put a water bath in the oven (I don’t have a suitable tin) so I spray water on top. I also don’t have a razor scorer so use a knife (not been able to find one in shops). I don’t do the baguettes either, just rolls, which is my preference. I have made it into one loaf before and that was fine. It’s absolutely foolproof (it must be if I can do it lol). I just put in oven for 25 mins.

Just in case I can’t link the youtube channel is called Food Language and the episode you want is No Knead Mini Baguettes - Easy Baguette Recipe.

Thank you!

I don’t understand why cooking quick simple meals is not the norm
We plan mostly quick cook low calorie meals - eg last night pork chops and broccoli, another night was chicken fillet with vegetable rice, tonight was salmon, mash and green beans
I steam most veg, grill meat or use microwave for fish so ultra quick and easy

But why did the parents not teach the children to cook??

I learned to cook at a young age, we as kids - under 10 - would be expected to peel and prep veg at the very least. Make pots of tea, and sort out our own breakfasts and packed lunches

First real meal I cooked was the Christmas dinner - for 12 . I was 13

Im not a parent, but I had our SD move in with us at 13, just at the time we were all doing open plan living - or had a kitchen diner.

So she would come in from school and HW was done at the Kitchen table , I would be prepping the meal and helping her, and slowly she got interested in what I was doing and whilst still being the sullen teen who didnt want to be there, she learned loads, which was shown when she started out on her own, and she would be on the phone asking for advice as she learned

Same as I will still get the old faithfuls down if Im not sure about the best way to cook something ( 60 years on this earth and I still check beef timings ) and make use of a meat thermometer

Cooking is easy, baking - that's a different kettle of fish - a science. But Cooking , even if you start at skill level of a boiled egg ( which is hard ) , you can cook

I think it is far too easy and cheap to buy processed food. If you don't have much time I can see why it's a good enough option.
I used to eat alot of processed meals as I really can't be bothered cooking but I got alot better since becoming vegan (it's easier to get fresh food rather then faff about reading labels!).
Admittedly I still can't be bothered cooking! Tonight I made a chickpea spread and had it with tons of crudites....literally no cooking involved!

Probably because the parents themselves didn't know?

I think the issue I have realised is that in other countries ie the global majority people who are poorer have staple foods that are cheap, nutritious, often with minimal meat and from scratch and rarely can they afford to buy ready type meals from supermarkets. Of course there is ready food ie cheap street food but again it’s usually fresh made. What is the staple food of the poorer people in the U.K./USA? There isn’t any really. Hence over reliance on terrible, processed, cheap foods that have little health value sadly.

Our staple food stuffs for decades were potatoes, vegetables and meat, stews in winter and salad in summer. Plus fish and chips on a Friday. Bread has also featured heavily.

Hmmmm, I’m torn here as yes, salmon, mash and green beans is in theory a quick, simple choice but there are six of us in our house so when you look at peeling, boiling and mashing for six plus prepping veg that’s not exactly a 15 minute job 🤷‍♀️. In theory yes, you can prep by peeling the potatoes in the morning for example but I don’t work set hours and often can’t predict when I’ll be home. Sometimes it does come down to not physically being there with enough time to do that. When I know my schedule I can work around it and build in cooking time earlier in the day in case a last minute appointment comes up, plus quite often I’ll use the slow cooker so there’s something appropriate ready for whenever we need it but for me it comes down to organisation. There are days and whole weeks when working out the logistics of planning, shopping, prepping and cooking for six for every day, all with different schedules, catering to some fussier eaters while making it varied and interesting and keeping everyone happy just takes up more energy than I want to give. If I worked full time I just couldn’t face it.

I suppose the theory would be that we should all have previously (home)made meals available in the freezer to be removed on mornings when you know you’ll be in a hurry but in my case, to cook for example shepherd’s pie for six and make enough to keep some in the freezer for these occasions requires quite a lot of freezer space if nothing else. Ideally I spend a Sunday batch cooking and might make three but again that’s a lot of space, time and equipment to do 18 portions and I simply don’t have the energy or interest all the time 🤷‍♀️.

I mean these aren’t daily/weekly occurrences so I suppose what I’m trying to say is that as long as in general we all aim to eat a varied, healthy and freshly prepared diet most of the time then breaking from that sometimes when you need to isn’t the end of the world. If the ratio switches and you’re at KFC more often than you’re at home for dinner that’s a different matter and unfortunately I think that’s what’s happened in too many houses but I really can see why.

My grandmother had more than six to look after and she did a proper home cooked meal every night but she also didn’t work out of the home, wouldn’t have dreamed of it, and she spread her childbirth over 26 years so the older ones helped out. I’m not saying she had it easier but she most certainly wasn’t bothered by things like homework or after school activities. There was no scheduling conflict to navigate or chauffeuring around to do. She would have children in the kitchen helping after school when mine would be doing homework or at swimming/dance/sewing and other clubs. I live in a completely different world to her.

I don’t think mash is quick either. Boiled, steamed or baked potatoes with their skin on is far quicker and more nutritious.

A household of 6 with different schedules is going to be more challenging than a smaller household, or one with less scheduling.

I think it’s very easy for a lot of people to slip into having takeaways/UPFs more than they have nutritious meals and I know of a number of households who rely on takeaways when they can cook, don’t have scheduling issues and can cook. One of my neighbours is very much like that and sadly the children are at best overweight and unless something changes they are at risk of becoming obese like their parents.

The food classes at our school were a waste of time. All we ever made was cakes, bread and pizza using a ready made base and jar sauce. We didn't make an actual meal once. I think they should have spent more time teaching us different techniques and how to actually cook food.

I taught myself to cook and now I love cooking. I cook most days and generally the recipes I make take no more than half an hour.

I think it's one of those things where as you learn you get quicker at preparing meals. When you first start cooking it takes longer to chop everything and you have to keep looking at the recipe to make sure you're doing it right. It can take half an hour just to weigh out ingredients and chop them so people think it's a hassle.

A lot of recipes follow similar procedures so once you've made a few things and learned the techniques you don't really need to follow the recipe once you know what's in it. You get quicker at chopping and don't need to weigh everything because you get used to how much you need by sight. Also I only found out on here the other day that you can buy frozen chopped onions which would speed things up even more!

I think the difficulty with families is more finding something that everyone will eat. I have colleagues who make 3 meals a night because of fussy eaters, only doable with ready meals.

OP is getting a lot of abuse here but I agree that Italian food is brilliant for quick meals. It's often very simple and only has a few ingredients. If you want protein it doesn't take much extra time to add chicken or prawns to a tomato pasta.

@FullLondonEye - I know you weren't asking this, but if you do want to do mash for all six of you, you can cook the potatoes in their skins and then use a ricer to make the mash. I found this was a real help, when I was cooking for five of us - three of them teenage boys with hollow legs.

I do think that basic cookery skills need to be taught in schools - it's the one place where you can say that most people will get the same basic instruction. It's not just how to chop veg, or work out how long things take to cook - it's the vocabulary too - what does it mean when a recipe says 'saute' or 'dice', or 'simmer'.

The internet is also a great place for people to learn these - and many other - skills, but school seems to me the best way to reach the greatest number of people.