Ready-meals are ’nutritionally chaotic’ study finds

Supermarket ready-meals are 'nutritionally chaotic', according to a study by scientists at the University of Glasgow which calls for improvements to be made. Researchers led by Professor Mike Lean, Chair of Nutrition in the School of Medicine, looked at four different ready-meals across four different ranges at the five major UK supermarket chains of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury, Morrisons and the Co-op. The energy contents of macaroni cheese, lasagne, cottage pie and chicken tikka masala ready-meals across the healthy, value, normal and special ranges, where available, were examined. In addition, the nutritional information for energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat levels in the different meals and ranges from Tesco were examined in more detail. The researchers determined the acceptable energy content of a 'meal' should be 500-700kcal - around 30 per cent of the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) for a woman as specified by the Food Standards Agency. For the meal to be nutritionally-balanced, 30 per cent of the GDA should be present for all other nutrients. The results varied widely: of the 67 'meals' tested, almost half (32) did not contain enough calories to constitute a meal, while others (10) had over 700kcal.