Frozen meals going beyond convenience
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Canadian are looking for ways of extending their grocery budget, and one way of doing so is with frozen, ready-to-eat meals.
According to Statista, the revenue generated from ready-to-eat meals in Canada is some US$7.14bn in 2024, and is expected to grow annually by 5.72% (CAGR 2024-2029). In relation to total population figures, per person revenues of US$182.50 generated in 2024.
Lynne Strickler senior director, marketing with Conagra Brand Canada says that more Canadians, especially younger Gen Z consumers are turning to frozen, ready-to-eat meals to both extend their grocery budgets and to add more options to their meal preparations.
When Conagra took a look at the frozen, ready-to-eat market in Canada, several trends were driving frozen meal sales: Gen Z leads the pack with choosing ‘ready to heat and eat’ options at dinner, above any other demographic cohort; 25% of Canadians cited ‘ease of preparation’ as the top motivator when choosing what to eat for dinner along with more Canadians choosing to dine at home that eat or picking up the phone and ordering takeout, and 54% of consumers looking to save more money by cooking for often with frozen meals becoming one way to help with that.
READ: CSNC EXCLUSIVE: What’s in store for frozen meals in 2024?
“Across the board, a lot of Canadians have looked at ways to reduce their spending and still provide exciting food experiences for themselves or for their families,” Strickler says. “And frozen meals play into that space. I would suggest all cohorts today are turning towards frozen. Take Gen Z. They are starting out in the world, and they are looking for that convenience, and Millennials are looking towards frozen as they now have families and children, they have busy schedules, and they are looking to find ways to economize on their time and stretch their grocery dollars. Then you have Boomers who have spent their whole lives cooking dinners and now they may not be interested in doing that anymore.
Strickler says that because of these trends, frozen, ready-to-eat meals have evolved. While there is still a market for what might be called the traditional frozen meal – who can forget the Hungry Man meals from times past and which still sell today – to frozen options that are healthier, offer a greater flavour range and can come meet the needs of single persons and families.
“There are still people today who crave their classic meat and potatoes, but you now see today a wider range of options for consumers,” she continued. There is much more diversity out there now, from bowls, to trays to a every increasing range of flavours. Global flavours and cuisines are now becoming much more a part of people’s everyday cuisines, and that is making its way into frozen options. So, today’s consumer has a wider variety of food choices with today’s frozen meal segment.”
Strickler added that another major trend is for multi-serve meals, which is a meal that can meet the needs of a dinner for a family but that has enough leftover to be used as a lunch for the next day, again to stretch that grocery spend.
“And we should not forget health as well, and we have created within our frozen meals [at Conagra] different options to meet the health desires for different shoppers,” she added. “You can see that with our Healthy Choice portfolio of meals, and we now have such options as Power Bowls, focused on having more protein and other that are focused on dietary needs, and we are growing our garden portfolio of options for people who are looking for meat-free options or simply looking to reduce the amount of meat in their diet.”
