Open, heat and eat: the consumption of ready-made meals is increasing

"Lack of time" and the increase in the consumption of meals prepared at home free space will increase by 3.8% in 2025, the association of employers ASEFAPRE.

Buy, open, heat and eat: "lack of time" and space are driving the consumption of ready meals.

- The employer ensures that the issue of nutrition is the third factor in the decision of its customers, after comfort and taste.

- Juan Roig predicted a future without a kitchen at home: the space it occupies historically reflects society

Buy, open, cook and eat: a growing habit.The consumption of ready meals in Spain has increased by 3.8%, according to the 2025 balance of the Spanish Association of Ready Meal Manufacturers (ASEFAPRE), which estimates the total number of people per year at 18 kilograms.

Amai agreed that it is a 30 year of 30 years old used to use them.He told it is noicias "sometimes I don't accept food and I choose to rest in a healthy and the value, and it's going to be used for the restrooms at home.

Pizza is the most popular product among prepared foods in Spain.Consumption of both frozen and frozen potatoes increased by 2.6% and reached 131,600 tonnes per year. Clearly the second reference is frozen potatoes.which consumed a total of 98,056 tons, an increase of 3% in one year. Third, according to the association, which brings together about 20 companies in the sector, 7.2% of food made from pasta increased to 72,405 tons.

Other significant increases were in meat (12.4%) and pasta (9.1%).Meals prepared and kept at room temperature with legumes were also more common, up 5%.Among them, the consumption of refrigerated prepared foods was the largest (330,602 tons, an increase of 5%), followed by frozen foods (297,023 tons, 2.5%) and room temperature preserved foods (87,426 tons, 4.1%).

adapt to health problems

Carmen admits: "I prefer junk food to cooking," compared to the healthy option of eating fresh food, with no added fats like olive oil.Amaia also thinks it wouldn't be her "first choice if she had a work day that allowed her to pay more attention" to her diet.

And the Ministry of Health includes "ultra-processed food" among the "commercial health determinants" along with fossil fuels, tobacco and alcohol, which are more affected by the economic, social and occupational levels of vulnerable groups ... The World Health Organization (WHO) also emphasizes.Highly processed food is known to cause various diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

"We are working to reduce some ingredients like sugar, salt and fat. Eliminate others like palm oil," ASEFAPRE President David Aldea said at the presentation, adding that nutrition is the third decision factor for its customers, after convenience and taste."Price is important, but it comes later," he emphasized.

What place does the kitchen take in our life?

But there is no doubt that the consumption of prepared food is a sign of changing habits in our society, making cooking more of an entertainment content on social networks than a daily practice.according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The agency headed by Minister Luis Planas in its annual report until 2025 shows a "continuous" increase in prepared foods since 2008, with particular growth in preserves, soups and creams.

According to ASEFAPRE, six households out of 10 declare they do not have time to cook during the week.Thus, preparing food as an "obligation" is uncomfortable because kitchens are increasingly smaller, also due to the general reduction in the size of homes in cities.

Mercadona's CEO, Juan Roig, ignited the debate by declaring that "by the middle of the century there will be almost no kitchens" during a press conference.And regardless of maximalist speculation, the truth is that the place of the kitchen in our lives is always a reflection of society.The configuration of the kitchen open to the dining room shows a trend similar to the 20th century in the inclusion of women in the workforce when their male counterparts began to participate more in the homework, as many studies have analyzed over the years.

"Creating large spaces freed women from their isolation in the kitchen. Not only was the arrangement of cupboards adapted to the domestic style of the house, but kitchen tasks were also adapted and integrated into the common family life on the ground floor. In this family theater, actors competed for visibility and applause," anthropologist Irene Cieraad from the University of Architecture in the article details articles from the Technical Faculty of Delft."'Get out of my kitchen!'Architecture, Gender, and Domestic Efficiency," from The Journal of Architecture in 2002.