Which Frozen Meals for the Elderly?

Grimbal · 12 September 2010 at 10:06AM

Before my grandmother moved in with my mum, we were faced with a very similar situation. In the end, we felt that going for an on-line shop from one of the supermarkets would give us more flexibility. We could add in all the household goods that she would have needed in addition to the ready meals.

lady_isa · 13 September 2010 at 7:03PM

Oakhouse Foods will give you some to try,, if ya ask them nicely.

tallmum · 13 September 2010 at 9:56PM

For the last year my 88 year old aunt has had Wiltshire Farm Foods - ideal as I was able to order them on-line and when delivered the driver would take the meals in and put them straight in the freezer (even putting them at the back to help use oldest first. My aunt loved the meals - great variety and plenty she enjoyed.

Benefit for me was not worrying whether she was eating correctly or could hurt herself cooking (she has alzheimers so always a risk) - the carers were easily able to get her hot meal each lunchtime.

WFF also lovely to deal with on the phone, and when I made the first order after she'd been in hospital they did ask how she was - seemed genuinely interested.:A

Doctor-John · 30 July 2011 at 12:50AM

My wife and I are both disabled and unable to cook, so we decided to try Wiltshire Farm Foods. We now wish we had not.

Both the customer service and the food itself were horrendous. All the meals smelt like the worst imaginable school dinners, and were so unpalatable in flavour and texture that we were unable to eat them and gave them to the cats, who would not come near them. (The cats are not fussy eaters; when faced with the Bird's Eye equivalent Chicken Platter meal, they fight over the meat and then try to eat the empty container.) The cats did not recognize Wiltshire Farm Foods pork slices as food, and walked away from them!

After trying nine of the 18 dishes that we ordered, we could not stand any more, and phoned for a refund under the guarantee in their Terms and Conditions. We were repeatedly told someone would phone us back, and they didn't. It took three days to get through to someone with the authority to take action on our complaint, and then he argued with with me, was quite unpleasant, and even suggested that I hadn't paid for the food, which wasn't true. Wiltshire Farm Foods grudgingly arranged to send someone to collect the left-overs, and promised to come during the stated time slot and not two hours earlier as they had done when they delivered the food. Predictably, the van arrived two hours earlier than stated, and woke us up again. Undisturbed sleep is crucial to us for health reasons.

Anyone wanting a frozen meal should consider what the supermarkets offer. For instance, Bird's Eye do good platters with vegetables. Supermarkets also sell microwaveable prepared vegetables. There are several varieties of frozen all-day breakfasts: Heron sell one for £1, and this is infinitely better than the one from Wiltshire Farm Foods which costs £3.90 and is inedible even to our cats.

onetomany · 30 July 2011 at 6:38AM

im a home carer and 99% of my service users use wiltshire and all of them other than 1 who is a vegatarion who dont like pasta/ rice loves them agree the size of puddings is a bit dissapointing but its very easy to cook

MrsE_2 · 30 July 2011 at 10:21AM

chesky369 wrote: »

Have you thought of Cook Foods online dishes. They're not designed specifically for old folk and I suspect they might be expensive but they are tasty. Haven't ordered them online but tried a couple from one of their shops and they were very good.

http://www.cookfood.net/

I used to get these for my mum before she went into a care home.

MrsE_2 · 30 July 2011 at 10:22AM

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I hope you don't mind the suggestion - but is there a reason why you can't order a batch from, say, Waitrose, and change the delivery address to your Mum's house? That way you could add bits every now and then which she wouldn't buy but would enjoy.

I used to order those for her as well. There is an offer on small frozen meals from Waitrose, I think its 5 for 4 or something like that.

Walkawhile2009 · 2 November 2012 at 8:38PM

We started using Wiltshire. The food is slop, the sort of thing you would feed a child. The mash is like a sauce. The veg looks clean though.

Often the containers arrive damaged and trying to get a response from customer service is very poor, and finally when you do get in touch, often a week and many prompts later, they are uncaring, uninterested and unwilling. They DO NOT honour the service gaurantee and the damaged items just keep coming. I'd be very concerned at vulnerable people being taken advantage of by being unwilling to complain about what are potential health and safety issues. Swallowing plastic particles from the damaged containings, and also bacteria ingress through the same channels.

Possibly the most slippery and sickly customer service when they are taking your money. The website is slick and promises much. Sadly in reality management let the side down through incompetence and a couldnt care less attitude.

Do a supermarket shop for your loved ones instead.

Edwardia · 2 November 2012 at 9:26PM

My mother loves to cook but now that she's on her own she does eat ready meals if she's been out all day and is tired.

She has ready meals from Waitrose (own brand and Charlie Higson), as well as from Cook (I tried one and was very impressed) and Marks and Spencer.

My husband is partial to the odd ready meal here and there with a beer in front of catch-up and likes Pegotty Hedge stuff from Abel & Cole - and is mad keen on anything Higgidy.

skintsocks · 2 November 2012 at 9:26PM

I haven't tried the other companies on here, but I can recommend the cookshop (think they have other branches now, but I used the one in Farnham, Surrey). Tastes like homemade food, not mass-produced meals which lack flavour. Have had some really nice dishes from there for parties and so on - and they offer lots of one portion meals too.

Forgot to say - you can order online from the cookshop now

Which Frozen Meals for the Elderly?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free