People spend less time cooking dinner as convenience food sales rise - industry data

People are spending less time cooking and turning to quicker ways of preparing an evening meal, according to industry data.

The typical time spent making dinner dropped to just under 31 minutes, according to market research provider Worldpanel. That's three minutes less than in 2017, the company said, a trend which can be seen in the growth of spending on microwaveable rice, ready meals and chilled pizza.

Money latest: No more stamp duty? Reeves reportedly considering property tax Changes in consumer behaviour were also seen over the summer, with a 6% decline in trips to casual and fast service restaurants. Bucking the trend were coffee shops, which witnessed a 3% increase in visits.

Buying habits While savings were made outside of the home, shoppers turned to brand-name goods in the grocery store. Branded goods sales rose 6% in the four weeks up to 10 August, faster than the increase in own-label item sales.

In particular, people tended to buy branded personal care, sweets and chocolate, and fizzy and soft drinks. Branded sales of such items accounted for 75% of money spent on the goods.

It's far above the nearly half (46%) of overall grocery spending on branded goods. Read more:Something odd is happening in the markets - with no compelling explanationRedundancies begin at UK's largest bioethanol plant after rejected bailout The tendency is also seen in the rise of premium own-label goods, which also continued to do well via an 11.5% rise this month, compared with the same time last year.

The increase came despite shopping becoming yet more expensive. Price rises Grocery prices became 5% pricier, a slight slowdown from the 5.2% uptick in July.

It's this continuously rising grocery bill that has meant less spending on things like restaurants. Latest official data on inflation, which has been increasing since May, will be released on Wednesday morning.

Price wars Competition to offer better deals has again seen discount supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl gain market share. Tesco held and cemented its position as the UK's most popular grocery shop, growing the proportion of people doing their shopping there.

Second most popular was Sainsbury's, followed by Asda, whose market share dropped, despite vowing to cut prices and profit less to win customers back. The fourth most popular spot was kept by German chain Aldi.

Tesco and Sainsbury's saw slight rises of around 1% in their share prices on Tuesday morning..