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The Future of Tinned Food?

A Look into the Future of Convenience Food in the UK

By Lorcan FearonPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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We wanted to start a conversation about our relationship with food. This relationship has gone through long periods of change and the way we buy and consume food now is completely alien to how we did half a century ago.

There's one common theme throughout how food has evolved over the years and that's convenience. Food is increasingly being designed and marketed towards reducing preparation time and maximising ease of use. Go into any UK supermarket and you'll find instant noodles, microwave burgers, and ready meals.

50 years ago, a microwave would've set you back thousands of pounds. Upon its commercial release in 1946, the first microwave cost over £40,000 in today's money! Now, you can pick one up for around £30 if you want.

With this has come a whole new market of ready-to-go meals. And with ready meals has come a lack of awareness of what we're eating. Their convenience is what speaks to us the most, but if you saw everything that was in it, the amount of salt and carcinogenic compounds for example, would you make more time to prepare your meals from scratch?

Sure, they're convenient, but what does this eating habit say about where we're headed as a society? Food bank usage has reached record highs in the UK which lead us to think about a convenience food that's been around for a while and makes up the majority of food bank stock: tinned food.

They were once just provisions to put in your nuclear fallout shelter but now more and more people rely on tinned food from food banks to get by. It's a sad reality but one we must face up to.

We got creative and created these images for Climadoor to get people talking about it. The fact that a record number of people are relying on food banks should be talked about way more often than it is.

Unfortunately, the news cycle is completely dominated by the soap opera that is American politics and near-constant chatter about the EU. Meanwhile, people don't know where their next meal is coming from and need help.

The premise is simple, we took some of the nation's favourite dishes and international cuisines and condensed them down to fit into a tin.

With things headed the way that they are, could this be what tinned food will look like in the future? And if it does, would you eat any of these? We think a couple of these could spook even the most habitual tinned food eaters into cooking their meals from scratch again. There's something about seeing these dishes being made to fit in a tin that makes it look so off-putting.

BBQ To-Go

Could this be what a barbecue looks like in the future? We Brits love grilling our meat, and as soon as the sun shows its face, the barbecues emerge to initiate the start of the summer season. Would you eat tinned barbecue, though?

Tinned Takeaway

Chinese takeaway is adored in the UK. But it is increasingly becoming a luxury that people can't afford. You're probably going to want to exercise caution eating Chinese takeaway from a tin.

Curry-in-a-Tin

Curry is probably the UK's favourite takeaway. No matter where you are, you'll always find a curry house. Could food bank users be forced to enjoy tinned curry in the future? Or is this a good thing?

Fish n' Chips n' Tin

The look of those mushy peas is enough to make your stomach turn. It's the national dish, but a tin is doing it no favours.

Tinned Mexican

Not that far of a stretch. Tinned chilli con carne is readily available in stores up and down the country. Add nachos, guacamole and fried rice to the equation and you've got one messy looking tin.

Tinned Sacrilege

Everything about this one is just so, so wrong. Pizza, lasagne, ice cream. All delicious. All together in one tin? Illegal. This should never be allowed to happen.

The Tin of Risk

Raw fish from a tin. What could possibly go wrong?

So...

What do you think? Are these images a stretch or could you see this happening? Admittedly, some are pretty far-fetched, but some of them aren't that implausible.

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