Who’s behind the brand, and how did it all start?

We founded FieldGoods in 2021. It’s run by the two of us, brothers Sam and Elliot Day. The idea came about during the first lockdown, when we were back home on our parents’ farm on Dartmoor, cooking with Dartmoor beef and lamb.

We’ve always loved food and had been involved in the industry since 2016, having run our own restaurant in London. But we wanted to move out of hospitality and into creating a product instead. FieldGoods felt like a natural next step.

What started as a small, family-led idea has since grown into a team of 14, with family still very much at the heart of the brand, including our cousin Ella, who illustrates all of our packaging.

As brothers, what’s it like building this brand together?

We share the same values and priorities. We both studied degrees based around the environment and agriculture, Sam at Newcastle University and Elliot at Leeds, and we’ve always been passionate about farming and building a business in a sustainable way. That runs through everything we do, whether it’s the produce we use, sourcing 100% renewable energy through solar panels on our roof, carbon-offsetting our gas, or operating a zero-to-landfill waste stream.

Elliot is the older brother by three years, so there’s naturally an older and younger dynamic, but it works well because we each have different roles and responsibilities within the business. We’ve always been really close, and working together hasn’t changed that. This is our tenth year in business together, and we haven’t killed each other yet.

Being family makes decision-making easier too. We can be completely honest with each other and generally agree on most things. If we ever can’t decide, we pick up the phone to our mum – mums usually know best.

Why did you create FieldGoods?

We created FieldGoods because ready meals are often ultra-processed, with convenience prioritised over ingredients. At the same time, ready meals are incredibly useful for people with busy lifestyles, so we felt there had to be a better option. We wanted to become the go-to ready meal for the environmentally conscious foodie.

The market has long been dominated by brands that focus on speed and ease rather than quality. From the start, our purpose was to reinvent the ready meal and shake off the stigma that frozen meals have carried since the rise of TV dinners in the 90s. Often, people don’t have time to go to their butcher or source great-quality meat, so they default to whatever is easiest to find. We wanted to make it easier for people to access high-quality ingredients and genuinely delicious food, without sacrificing convenience.

Sustainability can mean different things to different people. What does it mean to you?

At FieldGoods, sustainability is one of the cornerstones of our business. That includes environmental factors like our sourcing practices, renewable energy use, and zero-to-landfill waste stream, as well as social factors such as creating a healthy work environment where the team feels passionate about their jobs and aligned with what we’re trying to achieve.

Every meal has a ‘made by’ label, which the team really loves, as it gives ownership to each individual batch of food. We’ve both cared deeply about environmental sustainability for years, but creating a workplace people enjoy being part of is just as important to us. A happy team filters down from the kitchen into the meals, and we genuinely believe that’s part of why the food tastes as good as it does.

Responsible food production means scrutinising every part of the process. From sleeves printed with 100% vegetable-based inks and glues, to trays that are 95% plant-based, renewable electricity and gas, and woollen sheep liners used for insulation, every detail has been considered. We’re B-Corp certified and work hard to continually improve by regularly reviewing our suppliers and sourcing practices.

What matters most to you when it comes to sourcing ingredients?

Supporting smaller farms and less intensive farming practices really matters to us. We focus on using native breed animals raised in upland areas such as Dartmoor and the Swaledale moors. These animals play an important role in maintaining healthy upland ecosystems by preventing overgrazing. All of our flour is regeneratively sourced through Wildfarmed.

Animal welfare is non-negotiable. The farms we work with have limits on acreage and herd size to ensure animals receive the care they need, and our animals are slaughtered at an older age than typical commercial standards. Free-range pork is particularly hard to find in the UK, but ours is genuinely free range, with pigs living outdoors for their entire lives.

We also avoid overfished species entirely. You won’t find cod, haddock, or salmon in any of our meals. Instead, we use chalkstream trout and coley caught in the North East Atlantic.

What sets FieldGoods apart from other brands?

For us, it’s all about convenience without compromise. We use great ingredients and the flavour and quality of the meals genuinely set us apart. In our previous line of work, we often finished late and didn’t have the time or energy to cook something nice for ourselves. We knew there must be lots of people in the same position, relying on ready meals or takeaways purely for convenience.

We make all of our meals in-house, which gives us full control over every batch that leaves our kitchen. We’ve run our main meals through the NOVA scale, a system used to classify how processed foods are, and none of them are classified as ultra-processed foods. We only use ingredients you’d recognise and expect to find in your own home, pairing restaurant-quality cooking with the ease of a ready meal.

Do you have a favourite meal in the range?

Our favourite is the Chickpea Butter Masala. It’s full of flavour without being overpowering, and the roasted cauliflower holds its shape rather than turning mushy, which is often the case. It’s also a flavour profile we hadn’t found anywhere else in the UK.

The inspiration came from a tandoori restaurant we ate at in Kathmandu. When we couldn’t find anything similar back home, we decided to create our own version. It’s something we eat weekly, usually with rice or garlic naan, and always with a side of raita and chutney.

What do you hope people feel when they sit down to enjoy one of your meals?

We hope it changes people’s perception of what a ready meal can be. Our aim is to give people more time to spend doing what they love, without worrying about cooking or compromising on quality.

Ultimately, we want people to enjoy a restaurant-quality meal from the comfort of their own home, any day of the week, while feeling more connected to the importance of good ingredients and where their food comes from.

Discover the FieldGoods range in store.