Buried in the demands of fast-paced lifestyles, consumers increasingly require quick and easy meal options that can be squeezed in seamlessly alongside lengthy lists of daily errands. The Plant Base examines the current trends and consumer needs shaping the rise of vegan ready meals and convenience foods.
In the fast-moving and often stressful grind of everyday life, efficiency and convenience are of prime importance. But when it comes to today’s consumer meal needs, being quick and effortless is just one part of the equation. Savvy shoppers are now seeking higher-quality and more nutritious offerings that still tick the right boxes when it comes to their convenience credentials. For those following plant-based diets, finding the right speedy meal options can feel like even more of a minefield.
Alicia Humpert, ADM’s marketing director for savoury EMEA and global proteins, commented: “Expectations for plant-based ready meals are high, and quality ingredients are game-changers in terms of sensorial and nutritional aspects, providing value”.
She recommended that brands in this category evolve their offerings to ensure they encompass affordability, accessibility, convenience, taste, texture and nutrition – critical components of a successful ready meal range in the plant-based segment.
“There is also a movement toward ‘snackification’ and ‘less complete’ meals, with a focus on grab-and-go options,” Humpert enthused. “Manufacturers that can deliver quick, easy plant based ready meals that go beyond soups or stews and enter the realm of snack packs, frozen snacks, salads and meal kits, will capture modern consumers’ attention.”
A world of flavour
Global cuisine offerings, such as Asian- or Mexican-inspired dishes, continue to feature prominently in the ready meal ranges of plant-based brands, as consumers in Europe and the US look to experiment with new flavours from further afield. According to research by FMCG Gurus, a significant 74% of global consumers express an interest in food products that boast new, unconventional and exotic flavours – and among these respondents, a notable 53% specifically desire these adventurous flavours in ready meals.
“Ready meals also take the guesswork out of the cooking process, providing ready-to-eat versions or the tools needed in an easy-to-follow kit,” Humpert added. “This is appealing for adventure-seeking consumers that lead busy daily lives.”
Additionally, consumers who seek novel flavours and culinary experiences will also likely be open to trying different sources of protein. “This presents an opportunity for manufacturers to deliver innovative plant-based ready meals inspired by regional cuisines, empowering shoppers with more choice and variety,” she noted.
Asian-inspired cuisine has soared in popularity with consumers in the West, evidenced by the rise of ready meal options that deliver flavourful fusions of Eastern and Western ingredients. Products that serve up a plant-based spin on traditionally meaty
Asian classics, such as the popular Japanese chicken katsu, offer the opportunity for consumers to enjoy dishes they may have tried in foodservice or on their travels – all within minutes, aligned to their dietary requirements and in the comfort of their own home.
UK supermarket chain Tesco, which offers an extensive plant-based ready meal range within its own-brand Plant Chef portfolio, has launched several Asian-inspired NPDs this year including a fragrant sweet potato katsu-style curry, and sweet and sour ‘no chicken’ with rice.
Meanwhile, vegan Asian ready meal brand Shicken – based in the UK and recently expanding into the US – has seen snowballing success in retail after beginning as a direct-to consumer company during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.
Co-founded by husband and wife Parm and Satvinder Bains, its dishes are based on traditional Indian recipes that have been passed down to Satvinder from three generations – all made with plant-based ingredients, including the brand’s signature soya-based chicken alternative.
Parm told The Plant Base: “Our dishes are enjoyed by everyone – whether they are vegan or otherwise, because they deliver the true taste of Indian cooking, crafted with authentic marinades and our unique plant-based chicken that tastes just like meat”.
Shicken’s core offering includes tikka masala, jalfrezi and balti ready meal dishes, as well as a
range of kebab skewers. Following the success of its tikka-flavoured kebab skewers, Shicken
has now unveiled a teriyaki kebab skewer product as part of a new endeavour to
stretch beyond Indian cuisine into a broader, pan-Asian offering.
“At Shicken, we want to continue evolving and developing dishes from across Asia,” Parm
explained. “In 2023, we travelled across Singapore and Japan for inspiration for authentic Asian dishes we can add to our culinary consumer experience.”
“We also have plans to travel around India for further inspiration, with trips to explore and
experience the incredible Indian street food scene in Mumbai and Delhi.”
Exploring different global cuisines can also be an opportunity to enhance health and nutrition within the ready meal category. Andy Welch, founder of Srsly – a UK-based food brand specialising in low-carb solutions – said that while traditional Western ready meals have been “a little wayward regarding their nutritional responsibilities,” the emergence of more world cuisine-inspired recipes has “nudged the goalposts”.
The brand’s plant-based ready meal portfolio includes teriyaki, chow mein and pad thai noodle dishes featuring chicken-style pieces made from pea protein. Srsly also favours konjac noodles in the formulation of its meals, enabling the meals’ low-carb USP. The konjac yam is a root-based vegetable native to Asia, and noodles made from konjac flour offer significantly reduced carbohydrate content and calories compared with traditional wheat- or rice-based noodles.
“Konjac noodles’ superpower is the fact that they are made from glucomannan – in addition to being low in carbs, glucomannan absorbs water in the digestive tract, which is a key component as to why our consumers feel both full and content,” Welch highlighted.
“Each recipe is a mix of low-carb noodles or rice, aromatic spices, vegetables and crunchy peanuts – meticulously assembled feasts that leave you feeling both full and satisfied despite only containing a miserly 15g of carbs.”
Clean convenience
Welch acknowledges the prevailing stigma attached to ready meals, often seen as “hubs for
excessive salt, sugar and second-best ingredients”. However, he firmly contends that it is “perfectly plausible for healthy intentions, convenience and great taste to happily coexist”.
Indeed, many brands in the space have taken note of the food and beverage industry’s biggest nutrition trends – such as boosted protein and clean labelling – making efforts to ensure their ready meals can adapt to such requirements, shedding the segment’s once unhealthy, ultra-processed reputation.
Alex O’Halloran, plant-based brand manager for Tesco, said: “We have improved our health
credentials across the Plant Chef range by adding meals rich in vegetables, pulses and beans. All products within the range offer a minimum of one of your five a day, are low in
saturated fat, and the majority are a source of fibre or protein.”
Tesco and many others are embracing the ‘vegetable-led’ trend, prioritising plant-based,
whole food ingredients in their recipe innovation. Today’s consumers are increasingly discerning about the ingredients in their meals, extending this scrutiny to the ready-to-eat category.
“People are increasingly looking for meals with a shorter list of familiar ingredients,” said Dylan Morton, culinary food development specialist for North America at Univar Solutions.
He continued: “Working closely with supplier partners and our technical experts, we can offer food manufacturers different options and tailored solutions, enabling them to bring high-quality, plant-based products to the market”.
Univar is working with Novonesis, a biosolutions partner that provides enzyme solutions aiming to address challenges in plant-based meat production. Enzymes such as Novonesis’ ProBite can be used as binders in meat alternatives in place of hydrocolloids, helping to satisfy clean label demands in ready meal development.
“Many brands are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the plant-based ready meals
space, and I think we’ll continue to see that in the coming years,” Morton added.
One of the primary challenges in clean label product development remains shelf life – a crucial consideration in ready meals, as ADM’s Humpert pointed out.
“To exceed consumer expectations, ready meals should be as fresh as a dish that has just been cooked and served,” she said. “It must also have a lengthy shelf life, whether it is being sold in-store or shipped through a delivery meal kit service. However, shelf stability may come with a trade-off for clean labels due to food stabilisers and other complementary ingredients and solutions. Solving these potential challenges takes quality ingredients and formulation expertise, in addition to proper packaging.”
ADM offers plant-based and clean label-friendly emulsifiers, stabilisers and texturants that can provide healthier alternatives to solutions like monoglycerides and diglycerides – ingredients that contain trans fats, commonly used as emulsifiers in processed food products.
“Plus, our pea proteins are inherently non-GMO, and we have non-GMO soy protein options, including those locally grown and sourced through our facility in Serbia,” Humpert continued.
Quality upgrade
Challenging the narrative that convenience food is unhealthy and low-quality, many companies within the plant-based space are emphasising how their ready-made options can actually help consumers to improve their diet, enabling access to a more varied range of high-quality, nourishing meals.
For individuals encountering barriers such as time constraints and limited cooking skills, adopting a healthy diet can be challenging, as can adhering to a plant-based lifestyle. Ready meal delivery services like Allplants in the UK and Soulara in Australia aim to address this challenge by offering nutritious, restaurant-quality options tailored to plant-powered consumers, requiring minimal effort to enjoy.
Allplants collaborated with plant-based powerhouse celebrity chef Rachel Ama last year, offering consumers a range of luxurious dishes inspired by Ama’s own heritage and travels. The limited-edition ‘chef in residence’ portfolio includes a smoked aubergine and walnut ragu; West African peanut stew; and a chimichurri portobello mushroom bowl among its ready-to-cook dishes.
Elsewhere, Soulara – acquired by Australian plant-based meat company V2Food in 2023 – delivers a focus on wholesome nutrition through chef-made ready meals that aim to make it easier for plant-based consumers to live by their values.
The brand’s ethos encourages consumers to ‘eat the rainbow’ through its diverse fresh vegetable-led range, designed to be low in sugar, natural and with options catering to specific meal preferences such as low-calorie and high-protein.
Nathaniel Tupou, general manager for Australia and New Zealand at V2Food, commented: “We know consumers want to eat more plant-based products in their diets, but some of the barriers to making this change are concerns around taste, nutritional value and how to cook them”.
“V2Food’s expertise in plant protein is the ideal complement to Soulara’s vegetable-forward
approach; coming together allows us to provide a well-rounded menu for consumers seeking a plant-based lifestyle.”
The restaurant-quality convenience trend is becoming more prominent on supermarket
shelves, too – in the UK, meat alternatives maker Meatless Farm has tapped into this trend with a range of luxurious fresh filled pasta products, ready-made with the brand’s meat alternatives encased inside as part of an indulgent filling.
Alison Reilly, head of marketing at Meatless Farm and its parent company Vegan Food Group, told The Plant Base that the range was developed with different consumption occasions in mind – the indulgent beef, red wine and porcini mushroom girasole, for example, is designed to cater to a “more elevated date night dining experience”.
Each parcel contains a vegan beef alternative made with pea protein, combined with red wine, a creamy plant-based cheese alternative and porcini mushrooms. Also available within the gourmet-style pasta range is a ‘no-duja’ ravioli, packed with spicy and smoky Calabrian sausage flavours – no fuss or preparation required, ready to serve up in five minutes.
“We worked with an Italian supplier who supplies top-tier restaurants to make sure that we were able to offer authentically tasting Italian restaurant quality food at home,” Reilly explained.
“Amid the cost of living crisis, consumers are looking for that restaurant quality dining experience at home without the price tag,” she added. “Offering convenient restaurant-quality plant-based foods ensures people don’t miss out on life’s luxuries while making meatless switches easy and delicious.”
Ready for the future
Convenience foods serve as a crucial resource for consumers navigating barriers such
as time constraints, budget limitations, ingredient accessibility and cooking expertise. It is important to note that the notion of quick fixes no longer implies compromising on quality, as many plant-based innovators in this market are keen to emphasise.
“Many people turn to plant-based ready meals to conveniently incorporate satiating, balanced meals into their routines. They want ready meals that contain high protein, fibre and omega-3 fatty acids, in addition to more wholesome ingredients,” ADM’s Humpert said.
“At the same time, our proprietary research finds that over 70% of global plant-forward consumers – defined as flexitarians, vegetarians or vegans – believe taste and nutrition are equally important. Consumers expect plant-based ready meals to both taste exceptional and support holistic wellbeing goals.”
With ‘plant-forward’ diets on the rise, Humpert predicts that momentum for plant-based ready meals will continue in parallel with interest in protein variety and convenient options. Brands that stand out on-shelf will know their consumers well and ensure their ready meals provide exactly what they are looking for out of a convenience solution – whether that’s an indulgent recipe reminiscent of restaurant banquets, a better-for-you version of a fast food favourite or an exciting chance to sample something new entirely.
