Over the past year, we’ve started to settle back into traditional ways of working, with many heading back to the office, even if it may be in a hybrid sense. However, entering back into a life which consists of more commuting, working, socialising and in-person shopping... we can often find ourselves strapped for both cash and time.
Carrying out research across the UK, we found that the average Brit spends six hours a week cooking, three hours deciding what to cook and five hours shopping for ingredients. That’s a total of 14 hours a week and approximately one month out of the year spent solely on preparing food. When food preparation consumes more hours than we spend with our kids (eleven hours), pets (ten hours) and nearly three times as long as we spend exercising (five hours) each week - it’s not surprising that we can often feel like there’s not enough hours in a day, and that we seek to cherish our downtime with family and friends by enjoying a tasty meal in good company. This might be why Brits believe sitting down to a meal together is still a really important factor of family life. In fact, 80% of us believe that a communal meal is still one of the most crucial parts of family life.
2023 could well see a return of back-to-basics cooking, as us Brits are looking to focus on wellness and time saving by prioritising healthy, easy-to-make food over more elaborate and time-consuming dishes.
‘Homegastronomy’ is a food trend on the rise in 2023. This term means creating restaurant-quality meals at home, fuelled by the desire to eat in, save money and experience new flavours and cuisines in the comfort of one’s own home.
One of the key findings from our report was that 2023 could become the year of the dinner party, with Brits opting to cook rather than go out and eat to celebrate life’s special occasions. With the current financial squeeze, it’s no surprise that the majority of us (90%) are paying more attention to how much we spend on food.
With price-consciousness and value front of mind for us all, there can be solace found in the fact that six in ten respondents to our survey believe that they can whip up a special treat meal at home without spending a fortune. Shopping around for deals (43%), reducing food waste (38%) and batch cooking (37%) are the top three ways we currently believe we can create great meals at great value. Over a third of the nation (34%) is also turning towards tools such as air fryers and slow cookers (34%) to craft excellent and efficient energy saving meals.
Brits’ Top Ways To Save Money While Cooking in 2023
"We are a nation united by food. Whether we’re engaging in lunchtime conversations with colleagues, or using a midweek meal as an opportunity to connect with our families, the communal aspect intertwined with food is part of what makes us human.
In this report, we have explored the current landscape of social media and its impact on our eating habits; with a particular focus on TikTok food trends.
From the most influential creators of 2023, to the foodie trends and hacks billions of users have got on board with this year, as you’ll see, TikTok’s power for good in the culinary world is something to behold."
Mimi Morley, Senior Recipe Development Manager at HelloFresh