analysis by Sarah Hardcastle - ready meals saled rocketing - restaurants are the driving force - regionality coming to the fore - shift to healthier eating When chicken tikka masala was voted the nation's favourite meal earlier this year, it was a significant benchmark, clearly indicating just how important ethnic food has become as part of our everyday diet. Ethnic food is booming, but putting a figure on its size and performance is difficult, because the market is fragmented with few sources measuring it reliably. Managing director Perween Warsi of S & A Foods, the largest supplier of own label ethnic ready meals, quotes a total retail and foodservice value of around £3.6bn (Datamonitor), with the Indian sector (£331m) leading in retail, followed by Chinese/Oriental (£192m), Mexican (£70m) and Thai (£3.4m). WT Foods, which claims around a third of the ethnic ready meal market through its Noon Products subsidiary, puts the value of the ethnic ready meals sector at £192.4m, a massive gain of 26% over the year to the end of March (AC Nielsen). Its figures show Indian meals dominate, with nearly twice the share of Chinese, while Oriental ­ Thai and Japanese for example ­ is still very small. Eating out is most people's way of gaining experience of ethnic cuisines ­ and the driving force behind the market's growth. One reason Indian and Chinese are so big is because the UK has 10,000 Indian and 8,000 Chinese restaurants. Less familiar cuisines, such as Japanese, Caribbean and Middle Eastern, are hampered by a small restaurant base. Warsi has another perspective on why Indian and Chinese predominate. "They're successful because they have balanced flavours which have a wide appeal, whereas Thai and Japanese have ingredients and flavours not everyone likes, holding back their growth." In retail, the pace in ethnic food is set by ready meals because these are the products consumers begin with and continue to buy because they're convenient. Cook in sauces are the next stage, followed by ingredients for scratch cooking as consumers become more confident and experienced. Ready meals is almost wholly retailer led, as the market is 97% own label. Asda and Sainsbury are the lead retailers in chilled Indian meals. Regionality is taking the place of authenticity as the main ready meals' trend, as it is in other areas of food retailing. Warsi says her company is working with retailers to introduce more regional Indian and Chinese dishes. "India has a vast culinary repertoire that varies widely between north and south, which we'll be drawing upon. Timing is all important. Consumers have to be ready, and we think they are now. Foreign travel, eating out and an increase in disposable income has given them more adventurous, sophisticated tastes." A recent fact-finding trip to China and Hong Kong led S&A to revamp Asda's Chinese range to make it more authentic. "It's seeing phenomenal growth," says Warsi. WT Foods group marketing director John Brennan sees Indian food moving towards healthier, lighter meals. "In the past 10 years, Indian ready meals have followed the restaurant market, with rich, dairy based recipes from the north of the sub-continent. But now people want to eat more healthily, and as India is heavily vegetarian, we'll be seeing a lot more vegetarian based recipes." He also has regional dishes on his development schedule. "We're starting to see southern and western Indian recipes appear at the top end of the market. Our Noon brand Prawn Malai, a southern Indian recipe, is doing well." Brennan predicts Indian food will overtake Italian in the next few years. "Despite it's popularity, penetration is low. Only 35% of households buy chilled Indian food in any 52 week period, compared with 90% for chilled food. So the growth potential for Indian is enormous." In the Oriental sector, there is a similar shift to healthier eating, apparent in the move away from rice to noodle based dishes. Brennan says: "Noodles offer the opportunity to use less meat and more vegetable, so are perceived as healthier. The development of noodle bars is giving them a boost and giving consumers the opportunity to assemble their own components into a meal." Among the brands, Birds Eye Wall's is developing the opportunity in low fat ethnic meals. It says the diet/healthy sector is the fastest growing area of the total ready meals market and recently introduced a Thai red chicken curry to its frozen low fat range which already includes chicken korma. It believes the frozen ethnic meal market needs revitalising with more exciting cuisines and recipes. "The chilled sector has traditionally been the area for recipe experimentation. The challenge for frozen is to change this. Cuisines for future growth are Mexican, Thai and Moroccan/Middle Eastern," says the company. Sharwood's takes the view that frozen market consumers are more likely to go for "safe experimentation" ­ hence its recently introduced House Specials range is based on established favourites such as chicken passanda and lemon chicken. Its area for innovation is convenience packaging, with the development of microwaveable Rice Bowls, designed to "heat and eat from the bowl". Perkins Foods has gone further on the packaging front, with a balti meal that includes a balti dish, now part of Iceland's own label range. "Innovative concepts is our speciality, and the dish reinforces the product's authenticity," says project director Chandresh Bajaria. The company has been supplying own label to leading French retailers, and has recently seen a market open up in the UK for its frozen and chilled range. With the market pretty much close to saturation, Patak's has gone on a slightly different tack in its recent move into chilled ready meals, with a branded range of three "ready to cook" Indian dishes that can be cooked in 10 minutes. The range is exclusively available in Sainsbury's for a year. Like many other players, Patak's sees huge potential in the ethnic snack market ­ it's latest development in this area being a Tikka Masala Wrap Kit. Snacks ­ particularly hand-held ­ is an area that S & A plans to develop. Warsi says:"There's a big gap for innovative snacks. We're working on a number of ideas for a new style of products." Perkins, too, is working on a line of snacks that will include sweet corn fritters, Japanese vegetable tempura and spicy meat bites, plus high quality dips, for a number of retailers. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

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