28 Mar 2014 Can’t cook, won’t cook Britain

Research has found that British households spend around half as much time preparing an evening meal now than they did in the 1980s – and the sandwich has become the most commonly eaten ‘meal’ over the course of the day as a whole.

The report from Kantar Worldpanel has also found that off-the-shelf ready meals are the second most popular all-day option, which perhaps has something to do with the fact that the average person has a repertoire of just four recipes that they can prepare themselves.

Critics said the findings show Britons are now a nation of lazy, fast-food cooks who exist largely on sandwiches and spend little time in the kitchen.

The study, which examined the eating and cooking habits of 4,000 UK households from 1980 to 2012, revealed that British eating habits have got steadily worse over the past three decades.

Thee time spent cooking a meal has reduced, on average, by almost a minute a year – from a full hour in 1980 to 34 minutes today.

And at the same time, sandwiches have become the most commonly eaten meal, with almost 6.4-billion devoured every year in the UK. Some 889-million of these are scoffed in place of an evening meal.

Ready meals are the second most popular choice, with 1.6-billion consumed every year.

The study comes despite more interest than ever in home cookery shows and books. In 2012, more than seven million tuned into the BBC’s Great British Bake Off, while 117,911 copies of Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals were sold in the UK in one pre-Christmas week.

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