Thai consumers are the world's most frequent buyers of ready-to-eat (RTE) meals, with 75 percent saying they have no time to prepare proper meals from scratch, according to ACNielsen, a unit of The Nielsen Company.

According to the survey, RTE meals are defined as frozen or fresh, hot or cold, fully prepared meals purchased in a store to be eaten elsewhere.

They are not the same as take-away and fast food, and they aren't canned food. In Thailand, RTE would also encompass food prepared in a market or on the street and purchased and taken home.

Of the top 10 markets for RTE, seven hail from Asia, led by Thailand, with 43 per cent buying regularly and 44 per cent occasionally, followed by China (35 per cent regularly) and Taiwan and Malaysia (34 per cent).

Lunch is the most common RTE purchase, accounting for 53 per cent of Thai consumers, followed by dinner (48 per cent) and snacks (40 per cent).

Three-quarters of Thai consumers agree that RTE meals come in handy when there is no time to prepare a meal, and they're in good company, with 87 per cent of consumers around the world agreeing that convenience is the biggest purchase-driver.

Beyond convenience, 40 per cent of Thai consumers said it was cheaper than buying all the ingredients and preparing them.

While supermarkets are the most common channel for purchase of RTE meals globally, most frequently by the Chinese (74 per cent), British (68 per cent) and Dutch (63 per cent), over half of Thai consumers normally purchase RTE meals in a food shop or restaurant (59 per cent) followed by convenience stores (50 per cent) and supermarkets (47 per cent).

"In today's fast-paced world, shopping and cooking is a rarity. In view of this, restaurants, food manufacturers and supermarkets have made our lives easier by providing us with an assortment of ready-to-eat meals," said Chantira Luesakul, managing director of ACNielsen (Thailand).

She added that with consumers increasingly interested in healthier options, the trend might well come full circle: just as the firm has seen with pre-washed and cut salads, consumers will look for other pre-packed raw ingredients they can take home and assemble into a convenient yet at the same time healthy meal.

Globally, close to one-third of consumers claim they seldom purchase RTE meals, and 6 per cent say they never do.

Most likely not to are Europeans, led by the Danes (49 per cent) and the Czechs and Portuguese (45 per cent). In fact a further 19 per cent of Danes claim never to buy them.