Abstract
Objective: To examine whether ready meals and equivalent homecooked meals differ in nutritional quality indicators, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and cost.
Design: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of meal data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) nutrient databank (2018/19). Additional data on nutrient composition, cost and cooking-related GHGE were calculated and compared between 54 ready-meals and equivalent home-cooked meals.
Setting: The UK
Participants: Not applicable
Results: Ready meals, overall and those that were animal-based, had significantly higher levels of free sugar compared with equivalent homecooked meals (ppwhereas animal-based oven-cooked ready meals had the highest levels
of GHGE and were most expensive.
Conclusions: Ready meals have lower nutritional quality, higher GHGE and are more expensive than equivalent home-cooked meals, especially those meals that are animal-based and prepared in an oven.
Design: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of meal data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) nutrient databank (2018/19). Additional data on nutrient composition, cost and cooking-related GHGE were calculated and compared between 54 ready-meals and equivalent home-cooked meals.
Setting: The UK
Participants: Not applicable
Results: Ready meals, overall and those that were animal-based, had significantly higher levels of free sugar compared with equivalent homecooked meals (ppwhereas animal-based oven-cooked ready meals had the highest levels
of GHGE and were most expensive.
Conclusions: Ready meals have lower nutritional quality, higher GHGE and are more expensive than equivalent home-cooked meals, especially those meals that are animal-based and prepared in an oven.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 531-539 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Public Health Nutrition |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 17 Jan 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Open Access via the CUP AgreementAcknowledgments.
Ruth L. Bates, Leone C.A. Craig, Neil Chalmers, Graham Horgan, Bram Boskamp were involved in data curation of the expanded NDNS Nutrientbank version used in this study.
Keywords
- Ready meals
- home-cooked meals
- nutritional quality
- cost
- GHGE
Access to Document
- Aceves_Martins_etal_PHN_Ready_Meals_Especially_VOR
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited