Convenience food
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Convenience foods or tertiary processed foods are foods which are designed to save consumers time in the kitchen, reduce costs due to spoilage, and reduce costs using economies of scale. These foods require minimum preparation, typically just heating, and are packaged for a long shelf life with little loss of flavor and nutrients over time. They were developed specifically to preserve the oversupply of agricultural products available at the time of harvest in order to stabilize the food markets in developed countries.
These products tend to be criticized because:
- Typically they are manufactured from almost inedible agricultural products
- They typically are high in fat and calorie contents
- The reduced time cost and nutritional content associated with these foods is specifically blamed for obesity
- Sometimes Genetically Modified (GMO) Foods are used
- Sometimes an irradiation process is used
- Preservatives are almost always used
These products tend to be used because of:
- Cost. TV dinners still only cost about $1, the original price of a TV dinner, in the US.
- Time Costs. Convenience foods reduce the time it takes to prepare dinners significantly.
- Variety. Due to packaging techniques such as canning and freezing, foods are available at all times of the year.
- Food Safety. Packaging and processing techniques, such as canning, freezing, and irradiation, reduce spoilage and the presence of bacteria in the consumed products.
Many point to the Feminist movement, unchaining women from the kitchen, as the motivation for the development of these products. Others say it is more likely that urbanization, industrialization, and a reaction to feed the post war population explosion after World War II was the true cause.
However what many over look is the obvious fact that convenience foods are a very profitable product and their development has been very much marketing lead.
From the manufacturers point of view these products are astounding.
They give:
- Repeat business. Once the meal has been eaten, the customer has to buy another one.
- Long shelf life means that there is little wastage
- The main ingredients are on the whole very cheap.
- As consumer taste and buying patterns change, the flavour and look of the product can track these changes.
In many cases all that is required is a cosmetic change to the packaging.
Unfortunately, the advantages for the producer do not equate to benefits for the consumer.
The cheap ingredients used are more frequently things like grains and other high carbohydrate ingredients.
Where meat is used it is:
1. Often the cheaper cuts or
2. Mechanically recovered and processed
3. Supplemented or replaced by Soya
This results in the need to use flavour enhancers and other additives in order to make the meal palatable for the consumer.
The same is true for non meat dishes.
The most common convenience foods most folk have come across are the breakfast cereals. Breakfast cereals come in a very wide variety of types from simple cornflakes through to deluxe muesli containing nuts and exotic fruits. These again are made from mainly cheap and nutritionally inferior ingredients that need to have their nutritional value augmented by additives
Whether convenience foods are good or bad depends on which side of the supply chain fence you are standing on. Manufacturers would say they are good. Not so the independent nutritionist or many consumer groups
Studies show that by 1965, 27 to 30 percent of US households had significantly incorporated convenience foods into their diets. By the 1990s, convenience foods in the US and UK comprised a large portion of the average diet. In the US, several studies indicate that many families diets consist entirely of convenience foods and fast food. By the 21st century, nearly every US household uses convenience foods in one form or another.
In addition to breakfast cereals, these food items take many forms. From Kraft Dinner, to whole turkey breasts. The TV dinner is a good example of a convenience food.
Many people in the industrialised world have begun to recognise the detrimental impacts on health resulting from diets which consist largely of nutrient-poor convenience or processed foods. This has contributed to the popularisation of organic food, encouraged some to adopt vegetarianism, and led to the rise of health-focused organisations, such as The Weston A. Price Foundation, which promote the return to traditional diets.
