Ready Meals

In 2003 as part of a regional food project, trading standards in MidCOTS sampled prepacked ready meals. The results were not that surprising in they showed that meals were often high in salt, fat and sugar. However having discovered and publicised this MidCOTS as a region decided to go one step further and working with a nutritionist from Staffordshire Trading Standards designed a recipe booklet called “Healthy simple and affordable – recipe ideas for the family”. In addition to this they designed a credit card providing information on nutrition labelling. Sandwell Trading Standards then decided to promote this to the local communities using their local Primary Care Trust and distribute the booklets and cards via the Healthy Café Network.

Bob Charnley, Deputy Trading Standards Manager of Sandwell Trading Standards explained how the results of a food sampling project by trading standards services with the MidCOTS region was used to produce a recipe booklet which was distributed using Sandwell’s local Healthy Community Café Network.

Project Name: Ready Meals

Project Start Date: 2003

Project Location Type:

Sampling project to determine the nutritional content of ready meals in the West Midlands Conurbation.

Project Origins and original aims/Objectives and purpose of the project:

The project originated from the MidCOTS Quality Standards Focus Group (a regional group consisting of Trading Standards Officers, (TSO’s) Environmental Health Officers, (EHO’s) and Public Analysts (PA’s)), the aim of the sampling project was to determine levels of fat and salt in prepacked ready meals. The project was led by Val Laville from Dudley, who in collaboration with a Public Analyst devised a sampling and analysis protocol. The results were then used to create a recipe book and information leaflet, with the aim of informing the public on ways to create simple, value for money, healthy meals. Sandwell Trading Standards decided to use the Healthy Café Network as one way to distribute the recipe book.

Organisations Involved:

1. MidCOTS1.

2. Sandwell’s Food Policy Advisory Board – this Board consists of representatives from Trading Standards, Environmental Health, Primary Care Trust, Planning, and from voluntary and community sector.

3. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Trading Standards

Target Audience:

Local communities

Methodology:

The region submitted 69 samples for analysis of salt, fat and sugar levels. The results attached show that often prepacked meals have high levels of salt fat and sugar. This was not too surprising but instead of only advertising these figures MidCots decided to go one step further and asked the question “why do people choose these prepacked meals over making their own?”

A sub group led by Val Laville and including Bob Charnley, Deputy Trading Standards Manager of Sandwell, Frank Hollywood, a Public Analyst from Staffordshire C.C., and Nicola Day, a Nutritionist from Staffordshire C.C, and Dianne Radford, an EHO Birmingham City Council came up with answers relating to peoples lifestyles, a lack of understanding of food labels, particularly nutritional information and that prepacked meals were perceived as cheaper than making a meal from raw ingredients.

The group, using the invaluable knowledge of Nicola, and results from the sampling exercise then designed the recipe booklet and card. The booklet includes examples of healthy meals that are quick, cheap, and easy to make. Recipes include chicken fajita-style wraps, pasta bolognaise, chickpea and fresh salmon pizza, and summer fruit ice-yoghurt. All have a nutritional breakdown highlighting the fruit and vegetable content and costing. The credit card has been developed to help people understand food labels and nutritional recommendations.

Each authority involved in the project then purchased the booklets and cards ready for distribution in their areas. Each authority differed in how the booklet was distributed, in Sandwell it decided to enlist the help of Angela Blair – the local Community Food Development Worker, who along with Bob Charnley sit on Sandwell M.B.C. Food Policy Advisory Board. Angela has been involved in the development of a Healthy Community Café Network (see case study on community cafes - Sandwell) and was delighted to help with the promotion of the booklet. This approach was adopted, as it was believed that it would enable better distribution to those groups, which would benefit most.

In July 2004 the recipe booklet was launched at Oak Green Café, Langley where the cook prepared the pasta Bolognaise recipe which was sampled by the Primary Care Trust Chairman, and Councillors. Since then the booklet is gradually being used for recipes by the chefs at each of the five community cafes and both the booklet and card is available for free to visitors to the cafes.

Funding:

The attached spreadsheet shows details of the cost of the cards and booklets for those authorities that purchased them, and sampling costs for three authorities.

[top of page]

Recruitment:

It is difficult to determine the number of staff hours dedicated to this particular project across the region. Each member authority has a commitment to contribute to the MidCOTS projects, which are therefore built into their individual business plans. A considerable number of hours were committed to the project by the members of the focus group who sat on the sub-group.

It was also important to have the input from the Nicola, the nutritionist on the team, as she was able to interpret the results from the sampling and devise suitable recipes for the public along with accurate and detailed nutritional breakdowns. Without doubt Nicola spent the largest number of hours on the project, analysing the results and prepare the booklet.

Activities / Sessions:

Staffordshire Trading Standards formally launched the recipe booklet and card at Trading Standards Institute Conference in Manchester on their stand on behalf of MidCOTS. Three examples of cooked ready meals types were displayed and delegates were asked to guess which one had the highest fat content on average. In addition to the recipe leaflet and 'credit-sized' cards, delegates were provided with a leaflet (produced by Staffordshire County Council (SCC), outlining the findings of the joint project. Press releases went out at the conference (both national and local) and several requests were made in Staffordshire for the recipe leaflets and labelling 'credit-sized' cards as a result. SCC have also received requests from non-MidCOTS authorities who have seen the recipe leaflet with a view to conducting similar work in their areas.

Sandwell trading standards promoted the recipe book via the local community café network and used the local press to advertise the launch.

Staffordshire County Council has also used the recipe leaflets and labelling 'credit-sized' card at the Staffordshire County Show, where the summer fruit iced yoghurt was made. Staff were very encouraged to see how many people, in particular the children enjoyed the dessert.

Sustainability:

The recipe booklet will not really date, although the costings will need to be recalculated, and will therefore be available to the public indefinitely.

Sandwell are exploring the possibility of building on the idea, including using advertising by local businesses to help pay for the books and maybe advertising the 5 cafes on the back page. There has also been discussion on changing the font and colour on both the recipe cards and books for the partially sighted, and possibly having the books available in different languages.

Recipe leaflets and labelling 'credit-sized' cards have since been shown to Primary Care Trusts (PCT’s) and District / Borough councils across Staffordshire by the Assistant Consumer Services Officer and Community Food Co-ordinator. South Staffordshire clinic, Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire County Councils Occupational Health departments are currently displaying bulk copies of these. It is hoped that distribution will extend in the near future to a range of GP clinics and potentially also leisure facilities throughout the County.

Evaluation:

There has been no formal evaluation but the numbers of recipe booklets being taken from the cafes give some indication of the interest by the public.

Feedback from the launch at conference was very positive.

At the launch in Sandwell people where asked to write down their views as they left, these included:

It proves that food can taste good as well as do you good’.
Delicious – I enjoyed everything I had. I scoffed the lot’.
Was absolutely brilliant, very tasty. I will try these dishes at home’
I have tried the Bolognese and curry in the booklet. I can’t wait to try the others’.

It has also been suggested that maybe the food officers who had been involved in the original sampling programme should visit the cafés to see how their work has linked in with promoting healthy eating in the local communities.

Lessons learnt:

The use of the Healthy Community Café Network was a great way of ensuring that the recipe booklets would get out to the communities.
There could be some changes to the cards and recipe books to make them more user friendly for partially sighted people and have them translated into other languages.
It was commented that by revisiting this work because of this case study had been very helpful because it had reinvigorated that original enthusiasm in the project and the use of the food vision website would be a good way of promoting how a straight forward sampling programme can have a positive impact on the local community.
Without the help of a nutritionist the project would not have proved so successful or additional cost and time would have been incurred buying in specialist help.

Name: Bob Charnley
Position: Deputy Trading Standards Manager
Address:
Environmental Health and Trading Standards.
PO Box 40
Lombard Street,
West Bromwich,
West Midlands
B70 8RU
Telephone: 0121 569 6558

Email address: bob_charnley@sandwell.gov.uk

{back to top]

Other Resources:

What's New