The December 2012 Pasta report examines the UK market for pasta for in-home consumption, including dry pasta, fresh/chilled pasta, tinned pasta, ambient pasta and chilled and frozen pasta-based ready meals.

In an austere retail climate, pasta volume sales have been buoyed by pasta's core use value as a cheap, cheerful, versatile and filling foodstuff.

That said, value sales have been ''challenged'' by the trend to discounting and buy one get one free (BOGOF) promotions which have pegged back value growth since 2009.

The pasta segment continues to evolve, bolstered by innovative new products such as Dolmio PastaVita, positioned as nourishing microwaveable meals for time poor consumers. In the fresh/chilled segment a plethora of own-brand pasta-based snacks in pots has been launched, perfect for the cafeteria kitchen. And allusions to the healthy Mediterranean reinforce pasta's impeccable credentials as a food staple.

Suppliers have also been tapping into the decline in out-of-home eating by offering restaurant-quality ''bistro-style'' pasta-based ready meals which have ''treat value'' but are affordable compared to restaurant prices. In short, suppliers of the acclaimed ''World's favourite food'', far from resting on their laurels, keep giving UK consumers yet more reasons to include pasta in their daily meals repertoire.

To download a table of contents for this report, click here.

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