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)

Actually I think it is a uk thing.. and an American thing..
I do think people in Europe tend to have more work life balance. And particularly around eating and having time to eat.

Scottish, lived in France for 20 years now and visiting ‘home’ a couple of times a year usually.

It’s a very different food culture. We didn’t, traditionally, have access to a lot of the staple ingredients that form the basis of Mediterranean cooking. Poor people in Italy and France had access to a wide variety of vegetables and salad ingredients, plus fruit, beans, and olive oil etc. In Scotland we had oats, barley, potatoes, plus cabbage and turnip. That’s not very inspiring.

my friends French DH was teaching they daughter to make a perfect vinaigrette by the time she was 5. No one taught me how to cook perfect turnips at any age.

when turkey burgers, cheese hamwiches and oven chips were invented my mum breathed a huge sigh of relief. As a full time working mum, she found it incredibly hard work getting dinner on the table 5 nights a week - particularly with the normal schedule of dinner at 5:30/6:00pm. In France, we don’t eat until 7:30pm. And the evening meal isn’t usually the main one of the day.

At school in France children are offered a 3/4 course lunch that is completely different to what is normal in Scotland. It is generally cooked on the premises, includes lots of veg, salad and fruit. There are no other options to buy food at school - no sandwiches, no crisps, no muffins, no pies or sausage rolls, no sweets or chocolate and nothing to drunk except water.

Culturally, id also say that the Brits are much more attracted to novelty and trying different things. The French are very conservative by comparison - many people still eat the sane foods that their grandparents did, and the classics are still very present. The typical British pub menu with (highly processed) cuisines from all over the world (an Indian curry, a Thai curry, fish and chips, a couple of pasta dishes, a noodle dish, plus steak, BBQ. Bbq chicken etc etc) just doesn’t exist here. It’s only in the last 5-6 years that pubs serving beer and burgers had really caught on here, the whole informal eating thing has finally taken off - but in a very French way: you are still asked how you want your burger cooked.

another thing: food marketing and the whole ready meals thing is light years ahead in the UK. And processed food is utterly addictive, a treat - and Brits are very, very susceptible to treats, especially sweet, fatty, tasty ones. In France a decent oyster or 6, or a very good piece of cheese is considered a treat.

This interests me, because when living and working in France (the outskirts of Paris), I regularly visited a small food market that was always conveniently open during the early evening. There were stalls selling charcuterie, lovely fresh bread and pastries, fresh veg and fruit, cheeses, olives and much more besides. I often used to shop there on my way home from work and it was easy to put a delicious meal together from the produce on display. In effect, this was a 'ready meal' as it required little or no cooking and minimal preparation, but offered the option of healthy eating. The nearest we get to this in the UK is farm shops (ruinously expensive) and farmers' markets (ditto), but they are seldom open in the evenings. And once you're in the supermarket, it's just a lot quicker, easier and cheaper to pick up a ready meal or similarly processed food than having to trail around for half an hour at least, trying to assemble various components.

I agree that processed food is very bad for us and because I HATE cooking, I now batch cook, relying on the same few meals: bolognese sauce for pasta, chilli (both meat and veg versions) a quick meat or veg curry and cottage pie and make enough to last for six weeks in the freezer. These dishes are supplemented with tray bakes with meat and vegetables and the occasional risotto or stirfry. It's very repetitive, but all I require food to be is edible, as I'm constantly on a diet and thus just try to regard it simply as fuel that needs to feel the empty space in my tummy!

What additives? Apart from citric acid (which is also often in tinned tomatoes).
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/316438362?srsltid=AfmBOoo-z3N0-Z0asq7JLZdVxtexSYAehS-Mng3RKlEog5JQ96p22WH4

I don't care what people eat, but I hate it when people demonise certain foods and food stuff and guilt people with it. I wouldn't be eating mac and cheese, Tesco or otherwise, but it's not the devil.

It takes a tin of tomatoes a glug of olive oil, pinch of salt and sugar and about 30-40 mins slowly on a hob. Not exactly a kings ransome!

You can grow herbs easily or used dried or none at all. It's still tasty.

Have it with couscous or bread or sauteed potatoes, so.

That's really not true actually. Office workers in Milan for example do way longer hours than London as work culture there is much more conservative still, like leaving late to impress your boss etc.

I'm sorry for you that you think your recipe is the most delicious meal ever. It rather suggests the stereotype of Italian foodies is a myth.

Most people in Asian countries still cook from scratch daily.

The fast food industry is trying to get its tentacles there as well though.

The whole dish sounds dull and lacking in imagination.

We are in Europe unless someone has moved us overnight.

Also as has been mentioned several times throughout this thread UPFs are becoming an increasing issue in many countries and not just the UK. The question is why? It’d be genuinely interesting to know considering their strong food culture and excellent ingredients and OP has been asked her thoughts on that but so far she has evaded it.

That's all very true. I agree with the concept of what is considered a treat in Italy too.

I never buy ready meals and have a takeaway a handful of times per year. I cook from scratch but do buy bread, ham and seasoned meats. Don’t make my own pasta or grow herbs. Don’t buy sauces in a jar. Eat plenty of fruit and veg. I’m sure there are plenty of other families like mine across the UK. This sweeping statement about UK eating habits is bonkers.

They might be on their way to become as common as here but they aren't yet. Hence why I am focusing on the UK in this post.

You’re not wrong. What’s also of concern is the explosion of home deliveries with the likes of Deliveroo, JustEat etc. For the 1st time in the history of mankind we can sit on our arses, burn virtually 0 calories and gave 3000 calories brought to us. Where I live in south London I can’t cross the street without being nearly mowed down by a fast food delivery electric bike.

I don't think you have read my original post at all as I have said very clearly that of course I knew that MILLIONS of families in the UK ate well, have a good diet, cook from scratch etc. BUT, this doesn't change the fact that UPF and ready meals are available in a much higher quantity compared to other countries. I couldn't have been clearer in my post tbh but people only seem to focus on what catches their attention.

But that's only a minority. Yet, the obesity epidemic is real. You can't honestly think that every obese person is only obese because they genuinely don't ever have time to cook or genuinely can't ever afford better quality food or genuinely disabled enough that they can't cook themselves better quality food. The numbers simply don't add up.

Continent of the 7/11 though 😂

In other words you just want to continue to evade the question and bash British people as was pretty evident from the outset. It’s a pity because it would have been genuinely interesting to explore why countries with excellent ingredients, strong food culture, longer meal times and many other positive factors are still increasingly turning to UPFs. I think that it’s worth exploring and tackling collectively as so many countries are being affected by this but evidently you don’t and just want to shit all over British people.

There’s much more of a profit to be made from processed food than from healthy food alas. In the jargon it’s called “ added value “.

I agree. There are far too many people buying processed stuff and ready meals etc. I know people say they haven't got time to cook, but I bet they've got time for watching TV, scrolling on their phones, having their hair done etc. I'm not condemning those things - just pointing out that everybody has choices and different priorities. After some health scares, good food is more important to me and I cook nearly everything from scratch.

You are clearly guilty of the same as I had to ask 3 times before I received a (non) answer.

I know Asia was mentioned upthread as being somewhere that values home cookery. But whilst Asia obviously covers a massive area, my experience of Korea and Japan was that they take convenience food to whole new level! I'd say it was driven by the work culture though.

Read what i wrote. It isn't good quality tomato sauce.

It's pasta with fresh tomatoes and i eat it a lot.

Tomato sauce us a whole other thing.

For what it’s worth I don’t think the OP is British bashing. We have a big ( huge) problem in this country and need to face up to it. There’s a wall of denial and excuses that sets in whenever someone talks about fast foods and the obesity epidemic in this country.