Microwave meal

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A typical TV Dinner

A microwave meal (also referred to as a frozen dinner, ready meal, or TV dinner because it is often eaten while watching TV) is a prepackaged, frozen meal which usually comes packaged in a flat cardboard box. They require very little preparation, and contain all the elements of the meal in one package. An example might be a chicken tikka masala meal, where the rice, chicken, and all other ingredients are prepackaged in a plastic tray.

They are typically purchased at a supermarket and stored in the freezer for later use. When it is time to prepare them, the plastic cover is removed or vented, and the meal is heated in a microwave oven for a few minutes, after which a fully prepared meal is ready—one requiring minimal effort to prepare. They are the ultimate in convenience, but they can be more expensive than preparing food from scratch (though often times the opposite is true).

The freezing process tends to degrade the taste of food, and are thus heavily processed with extra salt and fat to compensate. The dinners are also less nutritious than fresh food, and are formulated to remain edible after long periods of storage, thus often requiring preservatives such as BHT.

In recent years there has been a push by a number of independent manufacturers and retailers in making microwave and ready meals that are low in salt, fat and free of artificial additives. These are primarily based in the United Kingdom and do not sell to supermarkets but instead retail their products either over the internet, through their own retail stores or in Farm Shops. These include COOK Trading Limited, EazyCuizine and Chef On Board.

These types of meals are rather popular in developed countries; for example, the United Kingdom spends £5 million a day on microwave meals, and it is the largest consumer of microwave meals in Europe.

Before the proliferation of microwave ovens, TV dinners were packaged in aluminium trays and heated in conventional ovens.

External links

[The British Library - finding information on the ready meal and chilled foods industry]

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