The unhealthiest supermarket ready meals revealed — plus one dish saltier than two pizzas

The UK’s unhealthiest ready meals have been revealed, with one offering containing more salt than two margarita pizzas.

Campaign group Action on Salt analysed 1,511 ready meals sold across 11 major retailers, including Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and M&S.

Iceland was named the worst performing supermarket, with 84% of its ready meals considered to be high in salt, including the Taste of Italy vegetable lasagne, which has 3.9g per 400g.

That’s 5.4 times as much salt as the Weight Watchers butternut squash and spinach lasagne, which the study recommends as a healthier alternative, with just 0.72g.

However, it was the Cottage Pie by ready meal brand Royal that came out saltiest in show overall, with 6.12g per 400g serving, which is saltier than two margarita pizzas combined and exceeds the recommended daily limit for an adult of 6g salt per day.

The study found more than half (55%) of UK ready meals are ‘excessively’ high in salt content and one in five microwave meals are high in salt, fat and saturated fat – which necessitates three red warning labels on the packaging.

Aldi, Lidl, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s followed Iceland, with more than 50% of their ready meals ranking high in salt (at 70%, 64% and 54% respectively), while Morrisons performed slightly better at 40%.

However, it’s worth noting that some supermarkets have contested the findings.

A spokesperson from Iceland told Metro: ‘This report is inaccurate, selective, and not supported by a fair reading of the underlying data. Its lazy analysis is based on a sample of just 69 Iceland products – significantly fewer than the 190 to 194 products analysed for other major retailers.

‘Drawing headline conclusions from a much smaller sample undermines the reliability of any ranking or comparison,’ they added.

‘Iceland performs better than, or on par, with other major supermarkets and manufacturers in regard to calorie content. In fact, 90% of the products that Iceland sell are classified as “healthy” under the government nutritional profile model.’

It’s bad news for the Marks and Spencer’s chicken and bacon pasta bake, too, which has 3.52g (per 400g) of salt per serving, while the lamb hot pot has 3.38g (per 450g) and the ‘best ever’ mac and cheese 3.30g (per 375g).

Think a curry would be safer? It’s time to reassess, as the Royal chicken tikka masala with saffron rice has 4.68g per 400g, while its less salty alternative, Lidl’s high protein chicken tikka masala with rice and vegetables, has 6.5 times (or 3.96g) less at 0.72g.

Notably, Charlie Bigham’s chilli con carne was also given a red label for salt content at 2.52g per 400g. By comparison, Morrisons’ counted chilli has 0.89g per 350g – 1.63g less.

‘At Charlie Bigham’s, flavour always comes first. We make food which is as tasty as possible, listening carefully to consumer feedback on the taste of dishes to make sure they reflect consumer palette,’ said Patrick Cairns, CEO of Charlie Bigham’s.

‘We have been slowly reducing the amount of salt we put in our food and will continue to do so.’

To mark Salt Awareness Week (May 12-18), Action on Salt is demanding that the UK government ‘get tough’ on the food industry and end ‘voluntary inaction.’

‘With over half of ready meals found to be unacceptably high in salt, consumers’ health are being put at serious risk, often without realising it. It should not be this hard to eat healthily,’ said Sonia Pombo, head of impact and research at the organisation.

‘We now need the government to stop pandering to industry interests and introduce mandatory salt reduction targets with real consequences for non-compliance. Enough is enough.’

For Dr Pauline Swift, chair of Blood Pressure UK, the survey is a ‘stark wake-up call,’ considering that excess salt consumption is ‘directly linked’ to raised blood pressure – a risk factor for strokes, heart disease, and kidney disease.

‘Given it is estimated that around 4.2 million adults in England are living with undiagnosed high blood pressure, the government must act now to enforce stronger salt reduction targets and protect public health before even more lives are needlessly lost,’ she said.

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