Ready-To-Eat Meal

レトルト食品

These are foods that have already been cooked or heat-processed and are ready to eat immediately after purchase.
They mainly include instant foods, retort pouch foods, and frozen meals.
The word “retort” originally refers to a distillation kettle used in chemistry. The special pouches used for retort sterilization are called retort pouches, and the sterilized products are known as retortable pouched foods.
Products sterilized in this way can achieve commercial sterility, allowing them to be distributed and stored at room temperature.
The history of retort foods began in the 1950s when the U.S. Army developed them as portable military rations to replace canned foods.
It is said that this aimed to address issues with the weight of cans and the disposal of empty containers.
Later, when retort foods were adopted as space food for the Apollo program, they attracted the attention of many food manufacturers.

In Japan, in 1969, Otsuka Foods launched Bon Curry, the world’s first retort food for general consumers.
At the time, its advertising slogan was “Just heat it for 3 minutes, and it’s ready to eat.”
Today, more than 100 companies produce over 500 varieties of retort foods.
They can be stored for long periods, are lightweight, easy to handle and open, and can be quickly heated for immediate consumption. They also create less waste compared to cans.
These products, which make it possible to enjoy a satisfying meal even on days when you’re too busy to cook, have become an essential part of everyday life in many households.