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Meal deal

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A meal deal aisle in Tesco

In the United Kingdom, a meal deal is a type of discount where a main meal (often a sandwich, pasta or a salad box), a snack (often crisps, fruit or confectionery) and a drink are bought together at a combined lower price. About a third of Britons buy them every week, mostly for lunch.[1] More than seven million meal deals are sold every weekday.[2]

In 2022, 23% of lunch meal deals had more than 600 calories (the UK government's guideline), and 10% more on average. This was based on a survey of five stores.[3]

Contents

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Many supermarket, convenience store, café and bakery chains offer meal deals. Some common mains are pasta salads, sushi, wraps and ready-made sandwiches, and for snacks sausage rolls,[4] pork pies[5] and fresh fruit.[6] Supermarkets offer the most choice,[1] including over 500 products at Sainsbury's[7] and over 10 million possible combinations at Tesco.[8] Most items are cold, but Costa offers hot options.[9]

In 2025, most meal deals cost between £3 and £6.[8] The average cost quickly increased from £3.91 in 2020 to £4.12 in 2022.[10]

Meal deals can cost 50% less than the same items bought separately.[8] In 2019, a court said a bottle of wine included in a Marks & Spencer meal deal costing £12 is not free when calculating alcohol duties.[11]

Boots sold the first mass-made sandwiches in 1985. They then introduced the first meal deal in 1999.[12] Meal deals are very popular[13] because they are convenient and cheap, similar to meals at cha chaan tengs in Hong Kong.[14] In the United States, the phrase "meal deal" is instead used by fast food chains for a main meal, a drink and French fries.[15][16]

Less meal deals were sold during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was because more people worked from home instead of going to city centres. More meal deals started to be sold again in early 2022 when there were less lockdown-related restrictions[8] and during the country's cost of living crisis, which helped increase Greggs' sales by almost 15% from July to September in 2022.[17]

Restrictions

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On 27 June 2023, the Welsh Government said they would not allow meal deals in Wales to be high in fat, sugar or salt. This was to make type 2 diabetes and obesity less common. These laws would be introduced in 2024 and implemented in 2025. Retailers were concerned this would make food cost more, and an eating disorder charity thought this could make recovery harder.[18]

References

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  1. 1 2 Ash O’Mahony (29 November 2019). "Meal deal or no deal? Food to go category report 2019". The Grocer. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021.
  2. ↑ Manning, Sophie (16 May 2023). "Which Meal Deal has the biggest environmental impact?". 100Green. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  3. ↑ Leek, Sheena; and Afoakwah, Daniel (4 May 2023). "Lunch meal deals contribution to overconsumption and use of the intervention ladder models to examine stakeholders' potential actions to reduce calorie content". Journal of Marketing Management. 39 (7–8): 648–669. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2022.2157462. ISSN 0267-257X.
  4. ↑ "Greggs says rising costs have forced it to hike sausage roll prices a third time". ITV News. 4 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  5. ↑ Lemanski, Dominik (4 October 2022). "Costa blasted over tempting £2 meal deal that can actually cost over a fiver". mirror. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  6. ↑ Large, Amber-Louise (12 March 2022). "'I ate Tesco meal deals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it was a mistake'". MyLondon. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  7. ↑ Niamh Leonard-Bedwell (12 May 2021). "Sainsbury's to relaunch meal deals to 'compete with high street coffee chains'". The Grocer. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Rodger, James (6 September 2024). "Tesco, M&S, Boots, Sainsbury's shoppers who buy Meal Deals handed £920". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  9. ↑ Rodger, James (1 September 2020). "Costa Coffee announces big changes to its menu - new meal deal, cup size and £1 breakfast menu".
  10. ↑ Rob Brown (10 September 2022). "Six things you need to know about food to go". www.conveniencestore.co.uk.
  11. ↑ "M&S meal deal falls foul of the taxman". Financial Times. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  12. ↑ Sam Knight (24 November 2017). "How the sandwich consumed Britain". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ Jason Murugesu (12 April 2019). "The science behind why we always pick the same meal deal". New Statesman.
  14. ↑ "英國都有「常餐」——MEAL DEAL | 輔仁文誌". VJMedia (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  15. ↑ Miller, Bob (4 August 2023). "Dairy Queen Puts Together $7 Meal Deal Featuring 3-Piece Chicken Strips Or Cheeseburger". Chew Boom. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  16. ↑ Miller, Bob (29 December 2021). "Hardee's Launches New $5 Meal Deals". Chew Boom. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  17. ↑ "Greggs reports sales boost off the back of hot food meal deals". the Guardian. 4 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  18. ↑ Price, Ben (27 June 2023). "Meal deals: Unhealthy options will be restricted in Wales". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
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