"ready meal" news and stories

A mouse was found in a UK ready-made meal. To be more specific, only the head of the rodent was actually in the meal and the rest of the body was presumably lost during processing. After purchasing the microwaveable curry at an Asada market in England, the pregnant Tricia Rankin only ate two bites before she spotted the head. She told reporters that she threw up all night as a result of the incident. The company, which is owned by Wal-Mart, has issued an apology to the woman and assured her that they would issue "an appropriate amount of compensation" after the product has been tested. I wonder if she will receive more "compensation" if they find other bits of the mouse in the meal. As far as value per piece, I strongly feel that the head of the mouse is the most traumatic bit to encounter, followed by the tail.

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There are many things wrong with ready-made meals - apart from the small portion size and poor value for the money, there are all those high levels of salt, fat, sugars, additives and the like. Then there is the provenance of the food - not of interest, I guess, to most ready meal consumers, but of interest to us foodies.

There is a range available in the UK made by the Look What We Found company. (Could they have picked a more terrible name?) They proudly claim to know the suppliers and put their name and picture on the front of the packet. I bought Sandra Baxter's Wild Rabbit in a Light Mustard Sauce today (£4.69); I see that Sandra must have run out of rabbit in her Yorkshire farm as they have moved on to Northumberland farmer David Miller's rabbit online.

You would expect such products to be in the chilled cabinet, but in my local Waitrose market, they were on an "ordinary" shelf. They also have a long shelf life which is a bit worrying. Still, the range looks interesting. Like all ready-made meals, the portion was small, it lacked a little in a honey or mustard taste, although the meat was fine.

I don't often buy ready-made meals (and only bought this one specifically to try for Slashfood), and probably wouldn't buy this particular one again.

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