READY MEAL

Ready Meal

Ready Meal

Product: Cottage Pie

The standard version of the meal, the 'healthy choice' option, and the version aimed at children were bought from seven different supermarkets. The salt content listed on the labels was recorded. Results included(Varley 2006:12):

Some producers, such as Findus and Uncle Ben's, do not include complete nutritional information on their labels, and so the survey (and therefore consumers), could not compare them to other products.

The FSA is urging all producers to include full nutritional information on their labels - including amounts of salt, fat (with saturated fat as a proportion of this), and sugar(Seth, Randall 2001, 194).

Discussions with the food industry are continuing. The Food and Drink Federation has made commitments to reduce salt in products such as soups and sauces. The ingredients were;

1 onion

1 carrot

1 tablespoon of oil

500 grams / 1 lb of beef mince

2 tablespoons of flour

1 tablespoon of tomato sauce (ketchup)

½ to 1 tablespoon of Worcester sauce (Lee & Perins)

½ cup of peas

½ cup of corn kernels (optional)

1 bouquet garni or a small bunch of herbs chopped finely and one whole bay leaf

¾ to 1 cup of beef stock

3 to 4 large potatoes

1 tablespoon of butter

salt and pepper

New Ingredients

Products aimed specifically at children were often high in salt. The target intake for 7-10 year olds is 5 grams per day, but a number of meals, including three of the Asda 'More for Kids' products such as macaroni cheese and shepherd's pie were found to contain more than 40% of the daily target intake for children of this age. (Schröder 2003: 20)

On average, although 'healthy eating' ready meals often contained a little less salt than the standard versions, the differences were small. One meal - Asda 'Good For You' lasagne - had 60% of an adult's target daily intake of 6 grams per day. Safeway had two of the lowest salt products: lasagne, and chicken korma and rice from their 'Eat Smart' range. Heinz Weightwatchers and Birds Eye Less Than 3% Fat chicken korma were also relatively low in salt.

83% of all the standard products contained more than 40% of one day's target salt intake. (Freedman 2007: 22)

Of those manufacturers that had products in all categories, Tesco's products contained the least salt overall. Asda had the most products that contained more than 40% of the recommended daily salt intake.

Sainsbury's shepherd's pie had 5.9 grams of salt per portion - 98.3% of the target daily salt intake for adults.

Now the ingredients changes as;

1/3 cup olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons Fountain Tomato Paste

1kg lean beef mince

1 tablespoon Gravox Concentrated Beef Stock

1 cup water

400g can diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons Gravox Traditional Gravy Mix

2 carrots, peeled, diced

1 cup frozen peas

700g Desiree potatoes, thinly sliced

125g tasty cheese, finely grated

At a recent consumer consultation meeting at the FSA, consumer and health groups, and industry representatives, agreed that more progress needs to be made on the reformulation of processed foods to contain less salt.

Sir John Krebs, Chair of the Food Standards Agency, said: 'Ready ...