Nothing beats a hot meal, especially when you don’t have time to cook. Ah, the joy of microwaving! But there’s only so much you can do with your packet of soup, instant pasta or any other type of ready meal that needs heating when you’re in your car, on the train, or worse: when your boss simply refuses to install a microwave at work. Fortunately, technology hasn’t stood still. Whenever and wherever hunger strikes, self-heating food packaging is there to kill your craving with a perfectly warm meal.
While Ba Shu Lan Ren’s special ready meal format is only available online and in Eastern regions for now (and not yet approved by the FDA), experts believe it is only a matter of time for self-heating food packaging like the hotpot to take the Western world by storm. Always on the go and working long hours, consumers are increasingly demanding extra-convenient ready meals and the food packaging industry is continuously innovating in a bid to stay competitive. As a result, the ready meals market has grown significantly in both the U.S. and Europe over the last few years and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of over 4 percent at least until 2020.
Inspired by Packaging Gateway & Packaging Strategies
Self-heating food packaging for ‘Lazy Bums’
Leave it to the Chinese to come up with a convenient solution as brilliant as this. Ba Shu Lan Ren – that’s Chinese for ‘Lazy Bum’ – recently launched the self-heating instant mini-hotpot, which can be filled with pretty much any instant food base that requires water. Soup, rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, dried vegetables … You name it. Simply add a bit of cold water and the mini-hotpot ‘magically’ starts to heat up thanks to a water-activated heating pack at the bottom. Your meal is hot and ready to eat in 15 minutes – and there’s no microwave involved. It’s a lunchtime miracle!The ready meals market is on a roll
While Ba Shu Lan Ren’s special ready meal format is only available online and in Eastern regions for now (and not yet approved by the FDA), experts believe it is only a matter of time for self-heating food packaging like the hotpot to take the Western world by storm. Always on the go and working long hours, consumers are increasingly demanding extra-convenient ready meals and the food packaging industry is continuously innovating in a bid to stay competitive. As a result, the ready meals market has grown significantly in both the U.S. and Europe over the last few years and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of over 4 percent at least until 2020.
Inspired by Packaging Gateway & Packaging Strategies