Are supermarket ready meals as healthy as the packaging suggests?
It is not long ago that many supermarket ready meals were critisised by the media, the Consumer,s Association and the Food Standards Agency for having too high salt and fat contents (see this BBC article from May 2004 as an example). In response to this, supermarkets acted quickly and improved the labeling on many food products to show just how much of what they contained, allowing all of us to make an informed choice of what food products to buy ... we thought.
Research commissioned by Channel 4's dispatches program found that 'labeling can be grossly inaccurate, 'healthy' options can have more calories than ordinary ranges and supermarkets are stocking some products that make unsubstantiated health claims' (Channel 4). Some of the results can be seen on the Daily Mail website, the Channel 4 Dispatches program will be on the 10th January at 9pm on C4.
One example quoted on the Daily Mail website is Marks & Spencer's Beef Lasagne, which costs two and a half times more than Simply Value Lasagne from Somerfield - and has five times more fat. The website does not mention if there are other differences ... does the M & S product taste much better? Does it have better ingredients? Salt content? There are other factors to be considered than just the fat content, we will see if the Channel 4 program takes account of this.
What is very discouraging though is that many of the stated content levels, be that for fat, salt or others, were inaccurate for many products. Are they there to help us make a decision about the food we are buying? Are the differences due to lack of control during the manufacturing process? Did the supermarkets know about the variances? Or is the food labeling more of a marketing tool than a means of providing information? Maybe Channel 4 can give us an answer.
On another note, while this argument over ready meals goes on, a Carmarthenshire business has won the praise of 'True Taste Magazine' for their home made food. The Richardson family from Llansteffan, who run a stall at Carmarthen Market, have been commended on their award winning Glamorgan Sausages, Banana Bread and Welsh Steak and Kidney Pudding, all home made to secret family recipes handed down through generations.
Watch Dispatches -The Truth about Your Food: It's Not My Fault I'm Fat, 10 Jan, 9pm on C4
added on 9th January 20078 by Guenter Roos, Centrepage Design Ltd - Email: guenter@centrepage.co.uk
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