Waitrose Garlic-Free Ready-Meals

 

On Tuesday 28th January I accessed the Waitrose supermarket website.

 

In the search-box I typed "ready meals" and was given a list of 473 items (78 rows of 6 & 1 row of 5). Strictly some of the foodstuffs listed were no ready-meal, such as a bottle of soy-sauce, potato products such as mash & chips, and bread products such as naan or whole loaves. However, I have accepted the figure of 473, as I suspect some ready-meals were excluded, such as various soups.

From 12.30 to 17.45 I made an analysis of each of the proffered items looking initially for all those that contained garlic. I am, or can be, seriously allergic to garlic, or most likely the allicin it contains. Altogether I determined 113 items were garlic-free.

I then did further analysis of these 113 items to root out products that contained items to which I am food-intolerant, namely chives, spring-onions, onion-powder, and onion content over 10% of the product. I can eat onion &/or shallots in small quantities, as long as they have been well cooked. So I can never eat raw onion in a salad, but can eat crispy BBQ onion. This is also where I ditched the potato & bread products that had snuck in. I found that a further 33 items needed to be ignored.

So, 78 of the 473 ready-meals proffered appeared to be acceptable food choices. That means approximately 16.5% of Waitrose's vended ready-meals are safe for me to consume.

Category	Sub-category	Brand	Title	Weight	Price	Microwavable	Freezable
Canned	Other	Princes	Chicken in white sauce	392g	2.30
		Zanae	Vine leaves stuffed with rice	280g	2.50
	Soup	Baxters	Chicken broth	400g	2.00	Y
		Baxters	Cock-a-leekie soup	400g	2.00	Y
		Baxters	Country garden soup	400g	2.10	Y
		Baxters	Lentil & bacon soup	400g	2.00	Y
		Baxters	Pea & ham soup	400g	2.00	Y
Chilled	Fish: cod	Waitrose	Cod in parsley sauce	400g	4.50	Y	Y
	Fish: fish-pie	Charlie Bigham’s	Fish pie for 2	655g	9.95
		Charlie Bigham’s	Fish pie for 1	340g	6.00
		Little Dish	Classic fish pie	200g	3.00	Y
		Waitrose	Fish pie for 1	400g	3.50	Y	Y
	Fish: salmon	Charlie Bigham’s	Salmon en croute for 2	440g	9.50
		Waitrose	Scottish salmon roulade	270g	6.40		Y
	Fish: tuna	Rio Mare	Tuna & Mexican bean salad	160g	3.00
		Rio Mare	Tuna & sweetcorn salad	160g	3.00
	Meat: beef	Waitrose	Slow cooked beef brisket	380g	7.50		Y
	Meat; chicken	Waitrose	Asparagus & prosciutto chicken breasts	346g	6.50		Y
		Waitrose	Cheese & bacon chicken breasts	287g	5.00		Y
		Waitrose	Chicken with cheese sauce & bacon	400g	5.00	Y
		Waitrose	Lemon & pepper chicken breasts	267g	5.00		Y
	Meat: duck	Waitrose	Slow cooked duck leg confit	500g	8.50		Y
	Meat; pork	Waitrose	Fruity gammon steaks	325g	5.00		Y
		Waitrose	Maple-glazed gammon joint	456g	6.00		Y
		Waitrose	Slow cooked gammon shank	1kg	11.65		Y
		Waitrose	Slow cooked pork belly	444g	7.60		Y
	Pasta	Dell’Ugo	Ricotta & spinach cannelloni	300g	4.20
		Cathedral City	Macaroni cheese	400g	4.50	Y
		Charlie Bigham’s	Macaroni cheese for 1	340g	6.00
		Charlie Bigham’s	Macaroni cheese for 2	670g	9.50
		Charlie Bigham’s	Four cheese macaroni for 2	670g	8.50
		Charlie Bigham’s	Four cheese macaroni for 1	341g	6.00
		Waitrose	No.1 Four cheese macaroni	380g	3.95		Y
		Waitrose	Italian macaroni cheese for 1	400g	3.50	Y	Y
		Waitrose	Italian macaroni cheese with bacon for 1	400g	3.50	Y	Y
		Waitrose	Creamy spinach ravioli	250g	3.50		Y
	Pie; beef	Waitrose	No.1 Slow cooked creamy peppered steak pie	250g	4.95		Y
		Waitrose	Steak & ale pie	200g	2.75		Y
		Waitrose	Steak pie	200g	2.75		Y
		Waitrose	Steak pie	550g	4.75		Y
		Waitrose	Steak, mushroom & red wine pie	200g	2.75		Y
	Pie: chicken	Little Dish	Chicken & vegetable pie	200g	3.00	Y
		Waitrose	Chicken & gravy pie	550g	4.75		Y
		Waitrose	Chicken & gravy pie	200g	2.75		Y
		Waitrose	Chicken & leek pie	550g	4.75		Y
	Pie; vegetarian	Quorn	Vegetarian-chicken & leek family pie	680g	4.00
	Quiche	Higgidy	Spinach, Greek feta & pine-nut pie with roasted red peppers	200g	3.75
	Vegetable dishes	Waitrose	4 vegetable samosas	220g	2.85		Y
		Waitrose	Cauliflower cheese	450g	3.35
		Waitrose	Maple roasted Winter vegetables	365g	3.00
		Waitrose	No.1 Cauliflower & broccoli three cheese gratin	420g	3.95
		Waitrose	Red cabbage	300g	2.95	Y	Y
		Waitrose	Spinach & carrot rice	300g	2.45	Y	Y
Deli		Macsween	Vegetarian haggis	500g	4.10	Y
Free-From		Schär	Gluten free pizza base X2	300g	3.50
Frozen		Aunt Bessie’s	Frozen toad in the hole	190g	2.00		Y
		Higgidy	Two roasted butternut squash & feta pies	400g	5.95		Y
		Higgidy	Two chicken & creamy leek pies	400g	5.95		Y
		Moving Mountains	Plant based no chicken burgers	180g	3.00		Y
		Quorn	Fillets	312g	2.50		Y
		Schär	Gluten free pizza margherita	300g	3.65		Y
		Schär	Gluten free bontà d’Italia pizza salame	330g	3.65		Y
		Waitrose	Frozen slow-cooked beef & ale pie for 2	400g	5.60		Y
		Waitrose	Cauliflower cheese	500g	2.50		Y
		Young’s	Admira’sl pie	300g	2.25		Y
Pizzas		Crosta & Mollica	Capricciosa pizza	465g	6.00
		Pizza Express	Classic margherita, mozzarella	245g	6.00
		Waitrose	Essential cheese & tomato pizza	486g	3.50		Y
		Waitrose	Essential thin & crispy cheese & tomato pizza	241g	2.50		Y
		Waitrose	Stonebaked ham & pineapple pizza	410g	4.95		Y
		Waitrose	No.1 Spicy Calabrian salami sourdough pizza	490g	5.95		Y
		Waitrose	Stonebaked margherita pizza	356g	4.95		Y
		Waitrose	Essential thin & crispy cheese & tomato pizza	142g	1.60		Y
		Waitrose	Stonebaked goats cheese & caramelised red onion pizza	380g	4.95		Y
Vegan		Clive’s	Nut roast	280g	5.95
		Juicy Marbles	2X thick-cut filet plant-based steaks	226g	9.00
		Richmond	8 vegan meat free smoked bacon rashers	120g	2.40
		Waitrose	Mushroom & leek sausages	300g	2.75		Y

I then started a further analysis of these 78 meals to determine which are freezable and which microwaveable. Ostensibly Waitrose flags products that are either or both. However, I found many freezable products could only be determined as such by going to their respective pages or looking at the packaging in the images for the 'freezable'-symbol.

Only 16 of the safe-for-me-to-eat ready-meals are microwaveable.

Here are the results:

Soups                       X5

Macaroni cheese        X3

Fish Pie                     X2

Other fish                  X1

Chicken                    X4

Kids Meals (200g)      X2

So, excluding the children' meals (highlighted in bold in the spreadsheet above), those 16 reduces to 14 edible, microwaveable ready-meals. Included in this figure are 3 meals that would definitely require a side-dish of some kind.

I can eat chicken, in small quantities, otherwise I develop diarrhoea. Thus I restrict chicken to once per week or less.

Effectively, taking into account only 1 chicken meal, 1 fish-pie and 1 macaroni cheese, I would have a selection of 7 meals, of which 3 would be soup.

Under the Trafford Re-ablement Team's rule that I could only have microwaveable foods - no salads, sandwiches, eggs, canned meals, cheese or sardines on toast, etc., my weekly diët if Trafford only fed me one meal per day, would be:

Chicken meal (of which 2 are soups)

Fish-pie

Macaroni cheese

Soup (non-chicken)

Soup (non-chicken)

Soup (non-chicken)

Cod in parsley-sauce or haggis

Obviously they had agreed to two meals each day, which means:

Chicken meal (non soup)

Fish-pie

Macaroni cheese

Soup (non-chicken)

Soup (non-chicken)

Soup (non-chicken)

Cod in parsley-sauce

haggis

Yes, the beady-eyed will have spotted I would be limited to just a choice of 8 meals and then we would be repeating meals.

This would be my diët week in, week out ad infinitum.

The observant reader will already have noticed that over a week, this is not nutritionally balanced. This diët would not meet the government's advice to eat 5 portions of fruits/vegetables each day (5-a-day). This regime also fails to fulfil the NHS guidelines (Eatwell Guide) for a varied diët.

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So, reader, would you have accepted social care under these restrictions, knowing full well that the nutrient-deficiency would add further to your personal disease-burden?

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