Atomik Research were commissioned to conduct PR survey by Alaska Seafood. The research looked at the nation’s preference for takeaways compared to cooking healthy meals from scratch. Specifically, the research looked at how many takeaways different sectors of the country are eating, from families to students, how much this is costing and why they are dodging home cooked meals. To do this Atomik surveyed 1,006 nationally representative respondents, and 1,001 current students.
Key findings from the PR survey included:
- UK homes consume four takeaway and ready meals a week
- The nation is spending £18 billion pounds each year takeaways
- 1 in 10 children are also eating takeaway meals three times a week
- 55% are reaching for the menu drawer as a way of treating ourselves
- University students are eating a 5 takeaways/ready meals a week
- Students are spending a fifth of their annual maintenance loan on takeaways
- 61% don’t tell their families at all what they eat whilst away at university
- 30% admit to not telling their family the whole truth about what they eat whilst living away from home
- 21% aren’t confident when it comes to cooking a healthy meal such as a fish dish
- 22% admit to not even knowing how to cook fish
- 16% of respondents order takeaway because it is ‘quicker than a home cooked meal’
- 16% see them as ‘easier than a home cooked meal’
- 15% order takeaways when they don’t know what to cook
- 11% order in when they don’t know what to cook
- 40% of students say that they’re put off from cooking because ‘it takes too long’
- 40% say that they ‘don’t have the time’ to cook
- 30% simply ‘can’t be bothered’ to cook
- 25% say they can’t afford the ingredients they need to cook from scratch
The PR survey was part of a broadcast PR campaign created in conjunction with our parent company, 4media group, which consisted of research and broadcast PR elements. The broadcast day was fronted by TV-Chef Rachel Green. Rachel is on a mission to help the nation eat better by creating a series of recipes which show how easy it is to cook a healthy meal from fresh and even frozen. Rachel was also joined in the studio by Tom Allingham, editor from student advice organisation Save The Student.
The campaign achieved 12 items of coverage across broadcast media including multiple regional BBC stations such as BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Jersey and more.
