Frozen dumplings are most popular meal replacement

A Nielsen report on the Korean home meal replacement market showed Tuesday that frozen dumplings were the most popular form of instant food in the sector, and that people in their 30s were the largest consumer group.

Home meal replacements are instant food that is nutritionally balanced. Nielsen used a wide definition of the term to include some snacks.

By sales figures, frozen dumplings topped the list among 24 product categories. They accounted for 17 percent of entire sales, considerably more than the second item on the list - instant rice with 10.4 percent. Cereal followed with 7.7 percent.

Through data analysis, the report also found that 38.3 percent of people who look up keywords related to home meal replacements on portal site Naver are in their 30s. People in their 20s accounted for a smaller 34.6 percent. Women generally had a higher interest in the products, as 65 percent of those who searched were female.

By Song Kyoung-son