What we found

Products that met our nutritional criteria contained less than 5g fat, less than 2g saturated fat and less than 300mg sodium per 100g.

We found plenty of lower fat and sodium choices: 13 meals met all 3 criteria and several more met 2 out of three criteria. Only three meals failed to meet at least one criterion, so from a nutrition point of view they’re not all bad news.

Fat

Fat is the most concentrated source of energy. It contains more than twice the energy per gram of protein or carbohydrates.

We found plenty of lower-fat options, but you do need to read the label rather than be guided by claims made on the packaging. Several lower-fat options aren’t labelled “low fat”.

The fat content can also vary widely between meals of the same brand. For example, Irvines SuperSnack Thai Chicken Curry and Lasagne Bake are low in both total and saturated fat. But Irvines SuperSnack Cottage Pie isn’t such a good choice: per 100g it contains more than 12g of fat, half of which is saturated.

Sodium

Some meals were high in sodium. The Ministry of Health recommends adults limit their daily sodium intake to less than 2300mg. Go higher and you increase your risk of high blood pressure. But 920mg is all that’s needed for good health.

One meal – Wishbone Nana’s Lamb Roast – contained 689mg per 100g. Eat the whole meal and you’ll be consuming close to one and a half times the Ministry of Health’s maximum daily limit in a single serving. At 480g the Wishbone meal was a far more generous serving than many other meals and looked the most “homemade” of the roast meals in our survey.

As long as they’re eaten only occasionally and in moderate-sized servings, a higher-sodium meal won’t ruin an otherwise balanced diet.

Serving size

Heat-and-eat meals are mostly sold as single serves which vary in size from 250g to over 500g. Watch out for larger serving sizes, and for meals which are intended to serve two: it might be low in fat and sodium per 100g but it’s easy to undo your good work by eating too much.

Contains "meat"

Manufacturers must state the percentage of meat in the product’s list of ingredients. This varied in the meals we surveyed from 6 to 40 percent, with 15 to 25 percent being typical.

The “meat” component of the frozen roast meals contained more than mere meat. The roast lamb in the Hungry? Gourmet Roast Lamb sported 13 ingredients and additives. If you’re after meat without the additives, the chilled options in our survey are a better choice – the meat is just meat.