Is Ready-to-Eat Food Healthy? What to Check Before You Buy

In short: Ready-to-eat food is not healthy or unhealthy by itself; what matters is what is inside. A retort pouch is cooked food sterilised by heat, much like a pressure-cooked dish at home. Check the ingredient list, the oil, whether there are preservatives or added colours, and how much salt and sugar there is.

"Ready-to-eat" covers very different foods, from instant noodles to a pouch of home-style dal. So the useful question is not "is ready-to-eat food healthy?" but "is this one?" Here is how to tell.

What kinds of ready-to-eat food are there?

• Retort pouches: fully cooked food sealed in a foil pouch and sterilised at 121°C. Keeps at room temperature for months without preservatives.
• Frozen meals: cooked food kept frozen. Needs a freezer all the way to your kitchen.
• Instant and dehydrated food: noodles, soups and mixes you add water to. Often high in salt and flavour enhancers.
• Canned food: the same principle as retort pouches, in a tin.

Is the retort process itself unhealthy?

No. Retort processing is heat and pressure, like a pressure cooker, not a chemical treatment. Like any cooking, heat reduces some heat-sensitive vitamins, but the dish is the same dish: the dal is still dal, the vegetables are still vegetables. Read what retort food is and how it works for the full picture.

What should I check on the label?

1. The ingredient list, in order. Ingredients are listed from most to least. A good dal starts with the dal; a good sabzi starts with vegetables.
2. Preservatives. Look for words like "preservative" or INS numbers such as INS 211 (sodium benzoate). A properly retort-processed pouch does not need them.
3. Colours and flavour enhancers. "Added colour", "permitted colours", "flavour enhancer" or INS 621 tell you something was added to make the food look or taste a certain way.
4. The fat. Which oil or fat is used, and how much. Ghee and groundnut oil are traditional in Gujarati cooking.
5. Salt and sugar per serving. Compare with what you would add at home.

How do Thakar Kitchen dishes compare?

Every dish is 100% vegetarian and made with no preservatives and no added colours. The full ingredient list, with percentages for the main ingredients, is on every product page: a Gujarati Dal is mostly toor dal, a Mug Masala is mostly whole green moong, and a Ghee Khichadi is moong dal, rice, desi ghee, salt, turmeric and water, nothing else.

How do I make it a balanced meal?

Treat a pouch as one dish of a meal, the way it would be at home. Add rotli or rice, a salad or kachumber, a bowl of curd or a glass of chaas, and some fruit. One pouch serves about two people, so a dal and a sabzi between two makes a proper thali.

Questions people ask

Is it okay to eat ready-to-eat food every day?

A good retort pouch is just cooked food, but variety matters in any diet. Rotate dishes, add fresh salad, curd and fruit, and balance it the way you would balance home cooking.

Is retort food safe for children and older people?

Yes. There are no preservatives or added colours, and the ingredients are the ones used in any Indian home kitchen. Check the "Contains" line on each dish for milk, nuts or wheat.

Does ready-to-eat food lose its nutrition?

Heat reduces some heat-sensitive vitamins, as any cooking does. The main nutrients of the dish (the lentils, vegetables and fats) stay.

How do I know if a pouch has preservatives?

Read the ingredient list for the word "preservative" or INS numbers. Our ingredient lists are on every product page.