I was reading the Wikipedia article about microwave meals, as you do, which it defines as “prepackaged, frozen meals” (bolding mine). Well, yes, you can get frozen microwave dinners, but much nicer and more popular over here are chilled “ready meals”. They taste better and there’s a much bigger and more interesting selection. Any large supermarket here will have an aisle or two with a huge range of chilled ready meals, a godsend for a culinarily-challenged slacker like me.
Anyway, the fact that these ready-made dinners were described as frozen got me wondering if British-style ready meals are available at all in the US. I looked around a few grocery websites like Safeway and Hornbacher’s - plenty of frozen lasagna, pizza etc., but no mention of cook-chill Chicken Korma or what have you. Can it really be that the land of consumer convenience does not have ready meals? :eek:
I’m out in the country, so I may not be a good sample, but we do have some selection of chilled items that are not frozen. They tend to be near the deli section as they are prepared there and expire within a week or so. Things like fried chicken and potatoes or corn, rotisserie chickens, pizzas and calzones, chicken or meatball sandwiches. Lasagna, mac and cheese, and then other dishes that area available at the deli are sometimes prepackaged for convenience.
What gigi said. The refrigerated meal-type items tend to be those prepared on the premises, in the deli section, while the frozen meals are national brands.
(And, alas, you won’t find much Indian food in most U.S. supermarkets, chilled or frozen. Mexican, Chinese, Italian, but no Indian.)
This would explain why the frozen chicken sandwich I bought in Dublin tasted 10 times better than anything I’ve had here. Tell me, do you keep them in the freezer or the refrigerator? How long do they take to cook?
As previous posters mentioned, there are lots of places that sell chilled foods in the US. The problem is that they tend to be high in price. Small sandwiches usually run at least $4 while a tiny container of dessert often runs about $2.50. In contrast you can find plenty of frozen dinners for $1. I guess the reason chilled foods are relatively unimportant in the US is that our suburbanite car culture and emphasis on large supermarkets over small shops means people buy in bulk more often and have larger distances to travel to get back home. That’s not much of a problem with frozen foods, but can cause health problems for chilled foods. Indeed, I read a Wall Street Journal article that claimed “chill cabinets” are one of the reason British levels of food poisoning are higher than American levels.
They’re starting to gain a toehold around here. We’ve got the regionally-prepared stuff that’s brought in from …somewhere… that are sold near the deli as well as some that are in the meat case. The ones in Meatville are stuff like beef tips or pot roast in a bag - pre-cooked and just needing re-heating, whereas the Deli Land ones are more often than not completely raw, but at least are in oven-ready packaging.
I suspect the success or failure of the things will depend on the neighborhood’s restaurants - do you want to go to Safeway and buy a pre-fab thing that needs heating or cooking, or do you just want to pick up something to go from the taqueria or Chinese place? Or let’s just make a quick call, place an order, and pop over to Chili’s or Outback for a full meal delivered curbside?
In the USA, chilled “ready meals” come in two varieties.
At the deli’s in big grocery stores. Sandwiches, of course. But “non-deli” items are also available–sold per pound or assembled in meals. Example: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes & corn. Not extremely expensive but somewhat uninspiring. Careful checking of the “sell by” date is vital–but not a foolproof way to avoid food poisoning.
At “high end” grocery stores. Variety & quality are better–for a price. This set of menus comes from Central Market, a pricey but excellent chain here in Texas. (Browsing the site will reveal more expensive selections. And possibly make you hungry.)
I think it’s because Americans tend to do grocery shopping much less often than Brits. Judging from how much I see them buying at the supermarket (especially Walmart), I think once a week is typical. You can buy a week’s worth of frozen meals, but “ready meals” don’t last that long, do they?
I went to Trader Joe’s last night and bought Spaghetti & Meatballs, Lasagna and Rosemary Chicken with Rice. They have tons of them there and they are all under $5.00. The dates on the package indicate that they are good for a week.
I have seen chilled ready to heat items at the grocery store, both made on the premises
(Wegmans stands out as awesome in this regard) and as packaged, manufactured products that have been shipped to the store. I will buy the items made fresh at the store, but I won’t buy the manufactured stuff. The only time I’ve found food actually moldy when I brought it home was chilled ready to heat pizza, and chilled ready to heat tamales. This stuff tends to be near the refrigerated items like bologna, hotdogs, etc. I figured mold was only the most visible thing that could go wrong with these foods. I’ve never had a problem with foods prepared on the premises and packaged to sell, though.
One thing people underestimate is the immense distances in the USofA. Think about shipping a chilled meal from Montana to NYC. Not only is there travel time to market subtracting from the shelf life, but the maker has to ensure that the food stays suitably chilled the entire length of the trip. There is tech available that involves stick-ons to packages which change color when proper cooling is not maintained during shipping. Guess how popular that is.
So such meals have to prepared quite close to the markets or on site. That hurts the bottom line quite a bit. Think like a WalMart exec. Are you going to buy something from a single factory that churns out millions of frozen dinners a day or a thousand factories that each turn out few thousand a day? Americans would rather save a couple bucks on food than get something that tastes better, ergo, burger chains.
Anecdotally only, but we brought my wife’s cousin from Boston into one of the many ready meal aisles at Marks and Spencer, and she said “ah, this is just like Trader Joe’s”.
The latter half of this applies to frozen meals, too, doesn’t it?
Tesco and other big British supermarkets have invested in their own factories, tailored around their own supply & distribution systems. WalMart could do the same, and no, they wouldn’t need one factory nor thousands, but perhaps dozens? A quick check of distances suggests that trucking meals around Britain from one factory would be similar to supplying stores from San Diego to San Francisco.
On Googling, I realise that I’m incorrect in suggesting they run their own factories: they buy from companies such as these guys, who have a single factory supplying a major Tesco range.
Oh, I guess you’re talking about factory-made meals in hermetically sealed trays, not just cooked food wrapped in saran wrap? Do they need to be refrigerated?
It’s a couple of days on a refrigerated truck, isn’t it? Is it any more difficult than transporting meat or produce?
Shipping frozen items is easier because there is a wider temp. range that is acceptable. Also, once frozen, a chicken (or whatever) will remain frozen for a good bit in a well-insulated truck if the refrig. unit goes bonkers for a while.
Produce is not the same as meat which is not the same as a meal. Warm meat is a worse hazard than warm produce. A warm meal with meat is even worse.
3. And (I really, really, really can’t believe I have to mention this again): It is not an issue of tech or such. It is an issue of cost. A huge proportion of the US food industry is geared around economy of scale. Put as many pigs as possible in one “farm” in Utah and ship the meat all over the country. Sure, anyone, anywhere in the US can find chilled premade meals locally. But since they cost more, there are nowhere near as common as frozen ones.
Note that nowhere in my post did I say that such meals could not or are not being made, shipped and sold!