Do You Eat A Lot Of Ready Meals?

[pastafreak]

You may not want to after reading this by Joanna Blythman , a well respected investigative food journalist.


More than three billion ready meals were eaten in Britain in 2012
They make up the biggest sector of the UK's £70 billion a year food budget
Food manufacturers carry out little or no preparation of raw ingredients
They buy treated ingredients, mainly frozen or dried, from other companies
Meat, fish and vegetables are kept at sub-zero temperatures for months
But when the food is thawed and cooked it can be marketed as 'fresh'
A ready-meal factory can churn out 250,000 portions a day using 70 different ingredients


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2978316/Read-ll-never-eat-ready-meal-again.html#ixzz3TPSJe95O
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[Baldric]

No, none at all.

[ummmm]

Rarely.

I assume we're not including burgers etc in 'ready meals'

[LyndaB]

Never - although hubby takes them to work from time to time. I cook almost everything completely from scratch

[Old_Geezer]

Not as many as I used to. Maybe one or two a month.

Since rapid freezing is supposed to keep the fresh condition, is there a big deal about it having been frozen for some time ?

[pastafreak]

Read the attached article...bagged salad as much as ten days old,and kept in heavily chlorinated water,eggs that are not eggs used by most food producers...powdered,liquid,crystals,reformed.
Some I've known...but this is pretty scary stuff,and hard to avoid.

[DTCwordfan]

I do the cooking - a ready meal is when I am ready and not before.

[paddywak]

Very rarely,usually when Trish goes off for the day and I can't be bothered to cook.I worked in the food industry for 10 years and it really opened my eyes to what went on,and all of it perfectly legal,which is why I upset Trish by ignoring most of the various dates on things.

[ummmm]

Read 'not on the label'

I knew about bagged salad after reading that book. That's why it wilts more or less as soon as you open the bag.

[Old_Geezer]

Being human and needing human food, I'm unfazed about poor quality hamster/rabbit/gerbil/guinea pig fodder. Do they really freeze pet food ?

I'll check the article when back home then.

[jim360]

When I was a student and either lacking on cooking facilities or just plain lazy, I used to. Nowadays, only once in a blue moon.

[dannyk13]

I'm with Baldric ,none at all

[237SJ]

I take them to work sometimes but if I don`t, I`m still eating a ready meal anyway. I thought they`d stopped the chlorinated bagged salads some years ago when the issue was highlighted. The ones I buy say "washed in spring water"

[humbersloop]

it's just heartbreaking pasta, it really is

[Prudie]

ooh you lot are good. Yes I eat about 3 a week at my own request (all healthy or low calorie range) and have done for at least 3 years. I've probably built up an immunity to bugs so what I don't know about them doesn't really bother me.

[diddlydo]

Never, ever any ready meals in this house.

[hc4361]

What is classed as a ready meal?
Beef Wellington from M&S?
Lamb shank in mint gravy from Waitrose?

[jno]

yes, we have a meal deal every week or so from Tesco, M&S etc. Never had any stomach problems. Presumably not many people have or we'd hear about it. I don't think even Tesco's horseburgers actually made anyone ill, did they?

[pastafreak]

@hc...probably. I'm sure all suppliers/manufacturers make use of all or many of the methods that extend shelf life.

@jno...this is not about being made ill(not in the short term,anyway). It's about how our food is messed with,manipulated,treated to make it last longer,look better...so we will spend money on what is most convenient.

[chaptazbru2]

Yes, I eat ready meals and will continue to do so, they are very tasty. I never listen to scaremongering.

[hc4361]

Think how many different types of convenience foods most people use:
oxo cubes and gravy powders/granules/ready made
bread
tinned foods including baked beans, soups, sauces
tomato ketchup
jam, marmalade
custard powder/tinned custard
tomato paste
oven chips, frozen yorkshire puddings
cakes, puddings, ice cream and cheesecake

I've left off tinned/frozen/pickled veg as that is good, nutritious way of preserving food.