Brits have fallen out of love with roast dinners
New research suggests the traditional Sunday roast dinner is in danger of dying out
New research has revealed that the popularity of the traditional Sunday roast dinner is waning.
Figures from market analysts Kantar Worldpanel revealed that during the last year, the number of families tucking in to a roast dinner has dropped by four per cent to 1.3 billion.
Should Sunday roast dinners still be on the menu?
The traditional meat and two veg lunch is suffering a decline. Fay Schopen and Philip Hoare debate whether the Great British roast has a place in modern-day life
Fay Schopen: Roast dinners are a comfort blanket that practically cook themselves
Why cooking a Sunday roast is now too much of a chore: Number of meals eaten in past year drops by 55 million
British families have been feasting on a Sunday roast since medieval times, but in an age of fast lives, fast food and spicy alternatives, the traditional meal is on the wane.
It appears that preparing a leg of lamb, a beef rib or pork with the crunch of crackling is too much of a chore for many people.
New figures suggest the number of roast dinner meals eaten in Britain fell by around 55million in the past year – four per cent – down to some 1.3billion.
The figures come from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel, prompting speculation that many young families do not want to spend the time it takes to cook a roast from scratch.
It’s the death of a great tradition, as English as fish and chips and colonialism, but sadly the great British Sunday roast is on the way out. No wonder this made national news in three separate newspapers!
Except, of course, this isn’t quite news – it’s an advert for products which fall under the remit of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board:
But while roast potatoes might be disappearing from our tables, research from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board revealed that sales of mashed potatoes was up by 20 per cent.
Mike Whittemore, head of beef and lamb trade marketing at the AHDB, told trade magazine The Grocer: “Consumers are crying out for a new approach to the roasting category, but the way many retailers present and market roasting joints does not reflect this.
“Roast sales are declining but the supermarkets need to understand why. We have got to think differently about how to fill that void.”
More to the point, this isn’t a new phenomenon either, with Red Tractor launching a media campaign on precisely the same hook back in 2011:
Sunday Lunch on decline as Brits shun roast in favour of fast food fix
A new study has shown that people are nearly 20% less likely to cook a roast than we were 10 years ago, possibly indicating people’s misconception that preparing a Sunday lunch is expensive and time consuming.
Red Tractor has announced the launch of its “Sunday Lunch Heroes” campaign to celebrate Britain’s culinary heroes while championing to save the Sunday lunch, which is in decline.
Coincidentally, that story also made the Daily Mai:
So not only is this a mere advert, it’s also an advert based on a hook that’s at least 4 years old. Ah, British traditions!