Convenience foods

Convenience foods are the processed products built for speed: quickly and easily prepared by the consumer. Ready meals, cooked sliced meats, pasta sauces, pizzas, and microwaveable dishes all trade some freshness, cost, or nutritional control for time saved. Their success rests on understanding real kitchens — minimal equipment, minimal skill, minimal patience. Food scientists engineer them for reheating tolerance, since a sauce that splits in the microwave fails its only test. Love them or lament them, they reflect how modern life actually eats.