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Ready to Eat food took its own sweet time to enter the Indian market. Today, apart from manufacturing, India is also exporting ready to eat Indian food. Ready-to-eat food as animal or plant derived food that is cooked, frozen, washed, cooked for hot holding, cooled, and processed to be consumed directly or after heating.

It is a category of convenience food where the preparation time is extremely short and convenient, to where the product is prepared in advance and can be eaten as sold depending upon the requirement of the users and the weather conditions. These foods meet the specific needs of convenience, nutritional adequacy, shelf stability, storage, distribution to the centers and have become very popular

Convenience food, or tertiary processed food, is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimise ease of consumption. Such food is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily portable, have a long shelf life, or offer a combination of such convenient traits. Convenience foods can include products such as candy; beverages such as soft drinks, juices and milk; fast food; nuts, fruits and vegetables in fresh or preserved states; processed meats and cheeses; and canned products such as soups and pasta dishes. Additional convenience foods include frozen pizza, chips such as potato chips, pretzels, and cookies.

Most of us think that Indian food is spicy and hence only Indians prefer our authentic preparation but that’s not the case. There are products like Amritsari Chole, Dal Makhani, Biryanis, Gulab Jamun and many more such items that not only suit their taste but are also loved by them. 

Frozen food covers a wide range of ready-to-serve food that requires no further cooking before they are ready for human consumption. Frozen ready-to-serve food is served by many food caterers, hotels, restaurants, fast food chains, food centres. They are also distributed to supermarkets for public consumption.

Demand for ready-to-eat food is growing fastest in metros where a lot of working people don't get enough time to cook elaborate meals. According to retailers, the most popular heat-and-eat items include preparations of paneer, chana masala, rajma masala and pav bhaji. The demand for tomato puree and ketchup are commonly-used commodities due to high fluctuations of market prices of fresh tomatoes. The main categories of packaged food are canned/dried processed food, frozen processed food, meal replacement products and condiments.

The market is anticipated to grow on account of increasing working population, growing per capita disposable income, rising per capita expenditure on prepared food, increasing middle class and affluent consumers, etc. With the rising employment opportunities and changing lifestyle of consumers, the demand for ready-to-eat food products in the country is projected to grow during the forecast period as well. India has a large base of young consumers, who form majority of the country’s workforce. These young consumers hardly find time for traditional cooking due to their busy life styles which further creates significant potential for ready-to-eat food products.

Convenience food doesn’t require a lot of preparation and is easy for consumption. Convenience food market comprises ready to cook and ready to eat products. Among which ready to eat includes frozen foods, chips, bakery items and others. Whereas ready to cook has been further segmented into snacks mix, dessert mix and curry mix. Increased consumer awareness towards ready to mix food in India has changed consumer preferences for food resources which take less time and energy to prepare. In India, the demand for Ready-to-cook (RTC) food products has been increasing over the last few years on account of busier lifestyles and rising income levels of consumers. This has been consequently providing a huge impetus to RTC food products market in India, especially over the last five years. The Indian middle class, in particular, is witnessing a paradigm shift in their lifestyle and living standards. Presently, nuclear families and bachelors residing in metropolitans for academic and employment purposes are among the major consumers of RTC food products. Due to cultural diversities, companies are increasingly focusing on launching regional RTC products.

Increase in disposable income and consumer preferences for healthy and convenient food coupled with the rising demand for snacks and fried food products are expected to further boost the demand for ready-to-eat food products. In terms of value, the global ready-to-eat food products market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period (2016–2026) and is estimated to be valued at US$ 195.3 Bn by the end of 2026.

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