Chef Akila’s Gourmet Ready Meals · Articles

Ready Meals: Choosing and Reheating Them Safely

FOOD · GLOBAL

Ready Meals: Choosing and Reheating Them Safely

What to look at on the label, reheating properly, portions and where they fit

Ready meals cover a wide range in quality, and the label tells you which end you are buying from.

Reading the label

Salt per portion is where ready meals are weakest, and most adults already eat more than recommended. Fibre is the other consistent gap, which is why adding vegetables or a wholegrain side changes a meal considerably.

Check the portion size honestly against what you will eat, since a pack for two eaten by one doubles everything.

Ingredient lists

A shorter list of recognisable ingredients usually indicates a simpler product. Neither long lists nor additives are inherently harmful, and they do tell you how far the food has been engineered.

Reheating safely

Follow the instructions including the standing time, which is when heat evens out in a microwave. Stir halfway where directed, since cold spots are where bacteria survive.

Food should be piping hot throughout rather than hot at the edges. Reheat once only, and never reheat rice that has been left at room temperature.

Chilled and frozen

Refrigerate promptly on getting home, use chilled meals by the use-by date rather than the best-before, and defrost in a fridge rather than on a worktop.

Where they fit

Better than a takeaway, more expensive than cooking, and genuinely useful for anyone short of time, energy or mobility. That is a reasonable thing to buy.

Making them better

Add frozen vegetables, a handful of leaves, some beans or a wholegrain. It costs very little and addresses the fibre and volume at once.

Freezer meals

Batch cooking and freezing in portions does what a ready meal does, at a fraction of the price and with your own seasoning. Label and date everything, since nothing is identifiable once frozen.

Leave headspace in containers and freeze flat in bags to save space.

Cost

Compare the cost per portion against cooking the same dish and against a takeaway, which is the comparison most people are actually making.

Eating well when short of time

A few reliable meals you can make in twenty minutes beats an ambitious plan nobody follows. Tinned pulses, frozen vegetables, eggs and a decent stock cover an enormous amount.

Keep a small stock of ingredients rather than complete recipes, which means a meal is always possible.

Storage and dates

Use-by dates are a safety matter and best-before dates are about quality, which is why the two are treated differently. Never eat chilled ready meals past the use-by date.

Keep the fridge below five degrees, which most home fridges run above without anyone noticing.

Allergens

Emphasised in the ingredient list by law, and worth checking every time, since recipes change.

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