Will it stop you buying frozen ready meals

Popperwell

Lots of veg and yellow stickered food...probably more of it if I had access to more SM's but money saved is lost if you have to travel to neighbouring towns...

A town 7 miles away has B&M, M&S, Sainsbury's, Poundland, ASDA, Tesco's, Aldi's, Heron's, Iceland and Morrisons. My town has Tesco's, Aldi and Heron's.

Then again if you are on a limited budget/space...perhaps that is all you need.

Then again it might increase variety and if you can hit the times they reduce some items the choice might be greater.

Fruball

MadelinesMum wrote: »

missrlr wrote: »

I grew up without ready meals, we did have a Findus crispy pancake as a treat once, the chicken filling and neither sister or I liked it so Mum never bothered again.

My mum used to feed me crispy pancakes as a treat but I always though the meat was a funny consistancy, like some of the cheap spag bols you get now - I wonder if they have always had horsemeat in them? I wouldn't be surprised :eek:

You can still buy minced beef f!ndus crispy pancakes at tesc0 which surprises me as I would have thought they would be on the horsemeat list!

threemuttleys

Like many of the posters here, I very rarely eat ready made meals, with the exception of sausages.

I personally do not have a problem with eating horse (or pheasant, deer, or rabbit) However, the issue is that the products are not correctly labelled. ( I have eaten all of those, and all delicious!) And yes, I do wonder what other foods are we being lied to about? Pies, tinned Meats/Meatballs, hotdogs, those tins of chilli con carne etc.

One does have to ask, how many of these producers have been pushed into using horse (and any other cheap filler) by supermarkets profit margins?

I am lucky that I am an ok cook. I can put together a reasonable meal using cheaper cuts of meats (free range and or organic) but I really feel for those who do not posses the ability to do this.
I sincerely hope that this will be good news for Good Butchers, Farm Shops and Honest Independent Producers. Maybe the time is right for schools to reintroduce home economics (and not just Apple Crumble, Victoria Sponge and Spag bol using Dolmio as was the grand total of my cooking lessons at secondary school)

Grouchy

What a revelation all this has been, though I'm not surprised at all. So much of our meatstuffs are pumped with salt and water to increase profit. Though you don't like to think about the possibilities especially when the whole food chain seems to have practically no regulation and inspection regime, at least we now know some of what has been going on and the wide extent of it though the media coverage is very patchy. Channel 4 news at 7pm seems to have the most in depth information and Radio4. One thing that has got to come from that is back to basics on good systematic and independent inspections processes. Of course it might get all brushed under the carpet in the name of government cost cutting ...

I must admit I think the lax regulation and lack of any kind of proper inspection regime is an total scandal which is being constantly sidestepped by our government and the FSA which seems to more and more look like another toothless jobs-for-the-boys regulator. Thank goodness I don't eat meat and only a few processed sorts of foods.

I'd be interested what OSers make of the 'cheap' claims of these readymeals etc. I had a look at the T value spag bol online and of the I think 400grams total, only 13% was actal meat. So mostly pasta. And though I'm not a huge eater the portion sizes don't look like a proper meal to me. Has anyone costed out the same thing from scratch with mince or Quorn? That would be interesting to know. And after all the supermarket and everyone in the chain must be making profit on these highly processed foods.

The only good thing to come out of all of this is that we have more knowledge and can make more informed choices about what we buy and what we eat.

I'm afraid the slow and sidestepping way our politicans have responded has destroyed any faith I might have had in our politicians to ensure decent and safe food production and to protect the consumer first and foremost.

Sorry long ranty post.

ALIBOBSY

FairyPrincessk wrote: »

I would love to purchase from the local butchers but we simply do not have the money for it.

I don't know where you live, but it is worth shopping around and having a look in local butchers and if your are lucky like us local meat farm shops.

Last week I went to my local meat farm shop, they are great and can tell you the exact animal their beef comes from-you can wave at the animals in the nearby fields if you really want. The pork and chicken are also free range/higher welfare. The meat is somehow meater/tastier and more "dense" somehow than supermarket offerings so much smaller portions are just as filling, and especially in sauces/stews etc it will stretch alot further. TBH the prices aren't that much more than the supermarket and I have found in some cases-especially the FR chicken its actually cheaper.

EG FR chicken breasts-beautiful,juciy thick and tasty breasts. I bought 5lb in weight for £12.99. Eg about £5.90 a kilo. On my supermarket non of the supermarkets come close to that price, waitrose could get to double the price and all the others were closer to 3 times the price. They do a whole FR chicken for around £5.50-£6.00 for one with a size like the medium chickens in the big 4.

They can also do cheaper cuts or even game that the supermarkets wouldn't sell. EG a locally shot wild rabbit for £1 will feed a fair few people in a stew.

Worth a look around, don't feel pressurised into buying when you go in and just explain you want to check out prices/quality. Any decent butcher will be happy to help you, if they are funny with you then walk out and mark them down as no good.

Ali x

Pitlanepiglet

Our local butchers are all quite pricey but I'm looking at East London Steak co who sell quite a lot of cheap cuts of meat as well as steak - their prices look pretty good and whilst there is a delivery cost if you're outside of London I'm going to do a bulk order once I've got further down the freezer.

Personally I don't feel the need to blame the Government, I blame the supermarkets who push suppliers to provide this ever cheaper and the processors who think more about profits than quality.

madnotstupid

No market and only one butcher locally for me, award winning - totally out of my price range. I once bought a bit of beef shin to make soup, most expensive scotch broth ever eaten!

Rainy-Days

The fact that my late mum was a brilliant cook and taught me how to cook has paid dividends because I have never bought any ready meals. The only thing kind of processed that we have is oven chips and thats it.

So, the butcher that I use is an award winning Which? magazine supplier of the year and has traceability they also have their own slaughter area and they hang the meat in the traditional way. Yes it is slightly more expensive but you get what you pay for!! If on the other hand horse meat has found it's way into sausage rolls then we are beggared because that is the only processed item that I buy adhoc and we did have a pack of them over Christmas!!! :mad:

I have always said that cooking from scratch gives you autonomy of what goes into your food and you know it's fresh and it tastes way better as well. I think the only thing from this is that it has brought home to allot of people just how dangerous processed food is and if any good comes from it local butchers and suppliers may get a kick back from this in boosting their trade. Home Economics was wiped off the school curriculum and it needs to be brought back urgently.