Supermarket meals 'too fatty and salty'

The fattiest and saltiest ready-made meals were named and shamed in the UK today – with some oozing three times as much fat as their competitors.

Pizza, chicken tikka masala and beef lasagne were three of Britain's favourites to be closely scrutinised.

Some products bought at the UK’s biggest supermarkets were found to have more than an entire day’s recommendation of salt.

The fat content per 100g also saw huge swings – depending on the dish – in the survey carried out by Which? For the Consumers’ Association.

McCain’s Heat n’Eat Micro Pizza contains more than three times as much fat as Pizza Express Margherita and Tesco Finest Margherita.

Marks & Spencer’s Lasagne Al Forno contains nearly three and a half times more fat than Somerfield’s Lasagne.

Tesco’s Indian Chicken Tikka Masala (without rice), contains 47.3g of fat per portion – accounting for more than two-thirds of a woman’s daily intake and half of a man’s.

Even the more traditional Morrisons’ Favourites Steak and Kidney Pie contains 41.8g fat and 1.1g of sodium per portion.

The recommended daily guidelines for fat are 95g for men and 70g for women, while for sodium it is 2.5g for men and 2g for women.

Salt content was worked out by taking the amount of sodium in a meal and multiplying it by 2.5.

The Little Big Food Company’s Real Italian Stonebaked Microwave Margherita Pizza contains nine times more sodium than The Little Big Food Company’s Organic Stonebaked Pizza Margherita.

Somerfield’s Indian Chicken Tikka Masala and Marks & Spencer’s Chicken Tikka Masala contains five times more sodium than Morrisons’ Chicken Tikka Masala.

Iceland’s Lasagne contains 3g of sodium per portion – more than the entire guideline daily amount for both men and women.

Safeway’s Chicken Tikka Masala and Pilau Rice (fresh) contains 2.2g of sodium per portion – more than a day’s worth for women and almost all of a man’s recommended amount.

Nick Stace, from the Consumers’ Association, was critical of the results.

He said: “The food industry talks the language of healthy eating but Which? Research shows that in practice the industry has done little to cut fat and salt in food.

“Reducing levels of salt and fat shouldn’t mean that we have to eat tasteless, bland food. Some of the premium ranges were lower in fat and salt than the standard versions, proving that manufacturers can produce tasty ready made food with less salt and fat.”

Mr Stace called for the implementation of a “traffic light” labelling system which would enable consumers to differentiate between products.

He went on: “We are calling on manufacturers to help address the diet and health crisis by working to reduce unnecessary levels of fat and salt in their products.”

The five meals tested were cheese and tomato pizza, chicken tikka masala, steak and kidney pie, quiche lorraine and beef lasagne.

They were bought from Safeway, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Iceland and Somerfield.