Pizza and pasta, our favourite ready meals

PASTA and pizza have overtaken British dishes such as shepherd’s pie to become the nation’s most popular ready meals.

At the same time sales of TV dinners increased by 9.5 per cent overall, as cash-strapped families cut back on restaurant meals and stay in instead.

Sales of Italian chilled meals rose by 14.9 per cent last year, hitting £406.7million and knocking British cuisine off the top spot it enjoyed in 2010. Its sales rose by only 6.6 per cent, to £390.7million.

The chilled ready meals sector is now worth £1.2billion, according to data from market research analysts Kanta Worldpanel.

Supermarket own-label products, which already account for 92.7 per cent of the market, continue to go from strength to strength. Italian food enjoyed particularly strong growth at Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda.

Outside of the top two, Indian

‘English food seen as less exciting’

meals came third with sales of £ 167.5million, f ollowed by Chinese food on £86million and Spanish cuisine on £27.9million. French ready meals only managed to reach sixth place, on £26.3million.

Trade magazine The Grocer said British ready meals may have fallen out of favour because consumers feel they could easily make the dishes themselves.

It said: ‘The problem… is that however premium t he new product development was, English food is seen as easier and cheaper to cook from scratch than other cuisines.

‘It is also perceived to be less exciting – which could play into the hands of international cuisines this year, and not just Italian.’

Doug James, chief executive of brand consultancy Honey, said: ‘ It’s cyclical. We have been bombarded with messages over the past few years about buying British and now people are saying that we’ve tried that, let’s have something new and flamboyant.

‘Mexican and Spanish will do well this year.’