• The first home ready meals were actually created to use up surplus meat. US food company Swanson had a disappointing Thanksgiving period in 1953 and found themselves with huge stocks of leftover turkey.
• Bosses challenged their staff to find a creative solution, and salesman Gerald Thomas designed his own version as a ready meal tray. It had three compartments to hold meat, potatoes and vegetables.
• Swanson named their new idea a TV dinner, marketing it as a convenience food you could eat while watching television. And their popularity was staggering: Americans bought 10 million TV dinners in the first year alone!

By the 1990s, diets were getting more adventurous and ready meals makers strived to match this. 

Cuisines like Thai and Mexican were introduced and producers often recreated food that diners enjoyed in restaurants, but didn’t know how to prepare at home.