World-wide cuisine serves up opportunities for red meat and dairy

Pasta, curries and tacos have become the most popular dishes to cook in home – with more people looking to recreate restaurant-style meals at dinner time.

According to research from AHDB, when preparing evening meals, people are moving away from protein-centred dishes such as roasts and pies, towards world-wide cuisines such as Italian, Indian and Mexican.

And with these dishes frequently featuring red meat as an ingredient, AHDB believes the new ‘trends’ offer opportunities to boost sales of beef, pork and lamb as well as cheese.

The new findings from AHDB’s Consumer and Retail Insight team show that dishes like chilli and tacos have helped support growth for primary beef – with Mexican cuisine featuring in 5.7 per cent of all beef meal occasions.

While lamb has a smaller presence in mealtimes compared to other red meat, opportunities exist within curries – with Indian dishes being a key area of growth for lamb. This growth has come from households without children and less affluent consumers, who account for 60 per cent of in-home lamb Indian dishes – up from 36 per cent last year.

Aside from cooked sliced meats, there is a real opportunity for pork in East Asian cuisine, led by the popularity of sweet and sour and Thai dishes. And for cheese, 33.8 per cent of Italian dishes served in the evening feature cheese – which has been in growth over time.

Charlotte Forke-Rees, AHDB Analyst, said: “This cost-of-living crisis has meant many people have been forced to reassess what they spend on socialising, leading more consumers to eat at home. But that doesn’t mean that people are willing to sacrifice their enjoyment and taste.

“Therefore, there is a real opportunity to boost sales of red meat by promoting certain cuts for popular cuisines, such as Italian, Indian and Mexican and help consumers recreate restaurant-style meals at home.”

World-wide meals are not only growing in popularity in-home, but also in restaurants – with West African, International BBQ, Authentic Mexican and Caribbean becoming more popular, with nearly three in four consumers saying they want something new, at least some of the time, when eating out.

And the more established cuisines such as Korean and Vietnamese now lend themselves to the highly popular street food concept, with Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches and Korean steamed buns more widely available – both of which include red meat.

"While 46 per cent of consumers say they plan to eat out less often, when they do go out, they want to indulge,” added Charlotte. “And with 77 per cent of people saying that trying flavours from all over the world is fun, there is a massive opportunity for our red meat to feature prominently in these new and evolving cuisines.”