Meal deal

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. More than seven million meal deals are sold every weekday. 

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.

Contents
Many supermarkets, 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, pork pies and fresh fruit. Supermarkets offer the most choice, including over 500 products at Sainsbury's and over 10 million possible combinations at Tesco. Most items are cold, but Costa offers hot options.

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

Meal deals can cost 50% less than the same items bought separately. 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.

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

Sales
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 and during the country's cost of living crisis, which helped increase Greggs' sales by almost 15% from July to September in 2022.

Restrictions
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.

 References 

Category:Foods
Category:Marketing