It’s not a chicken-or-the-egg question of which came first. Refrigerated and frozen prepared foods predate microwaves.
Yet prepared foods and microwave packaging now enjoy a closer, symbiotic relationship. In fact, microwave meals grabbed the headlines in The NPD Group’s “24th Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America” report in late 2009. The Chicago researcher noted that although Americans are eating at home more – and have been since the beginning of the decade – 2008 marked a turning point as more households prepared their foods in microwaves.