Experts have told about Russians' preferences in ready-to-eat food

31% of residents of Russian cities with a million inhabitants eat ready-to-eat meals, including chilled cookery and tray-packed meals ordered from food delivery services, OMI agency representatives said. The corresponding data were obtained as a result of a survey conducted by the agency's experts on the eating habits of Russians. The survey involved 1200 respondents from Moscow, St. Petersburg and a number of cities with millions of inhabitants.

One of the most popular reasons for buying ready meals was convenience and time saving: 77% of consumers of ready meals said so. The wide assortment presented by various retailers and the variety of choices were highly appreciated by 53% of respondents. 35% of ready-to-eat food consumers buy it due to lack of desire or skills in cooking, every fourth (25%) is attracted by the quality and safety of products, and 14% of such format is convenient for calorie counting.

36% of consumers of ready-to-eat food consider it tastier than home-cooked food. In their opinion, manufacturers manage to achieve this due to the variety of recipes (41%), professional cooking (40%), standardization of quality (28%), high quality of ingredients (25%), perfect combination of spices (23%).

The majority (62%) order food home to eat immediately. 53% use tray meals to save time on weekends. For school or work, ready meals are bought by (43%) of respondents. More than a third of prepared food consumers purchase it for events and holidays (38%), for shared dinners with friends (37%) and for convenience when traveling (33%).

40% of ready-to-eat food consumers purchase predominantly or exclusively online, with 12% purchasing online only. When making a choice, trust in the manufacturer is important to the majority of prepared food shoppers (91%). Yandex Food (91%), VkusVill, Samokat and Yandex Lavka (89% each) have the highest level of trust.