Jamie Oliver cashes in with fat-filled frozen dishes – despite once declaring war on ready meals

The celebrity chef has an array of £4 meals for sale at Iceland including a “loaded lasagne” carrying over half of an adult’s daily recommended saturates

Jamie Oliver is cashing in with a new range of fat-filled frozen microwave dishes despite having once declared war on ready meals – even suggesting they should be binned.

The celebrity chef has an array of £4 meals for sale at Iceland including a “loaded lasagne” carrying over half of an adult’s daily recommended saturates. But in comments unearthed by the Mirror, we can reveal how Oliver once took aim at ready meals.

"We spend over £2billion a year on ready meals and that's not even counting junk food and takeaways,” Oliver reportedly said in 2008 ahead of a TV series aiming to teach people the basics of cooking from scratch with fresh grub. "Millions of people are really busy, they're on tight budgets and no-one has bothered to teach them how to cook. I hope once people see how easy and rewarding it can be to prepare food at home, ready meals will be in the bin."

But Oliver, who has campaigned for healthier school food, appears to have changed his view of ready meals over the years. Despite being a healthy food advocate, our probe reveals his new range of meals seem to be anything but. Other ready frozen meals in Oliver’s new range included the “mighty moussaka” carries a massive 62% of an adult’s recommended daily saturates and 52% of the fat.

By comparison, a typical bag of Walkers cheese and onion crisps contains 12% of an adult’s recommended daily fat and 3% of the saturates. Oliver’s beef rib bourguignon frozen meal has 43% of an adult’s recommended salt daily intake. And the “comforting cottage pie” has 33% of an adult’s recommended daily fat, 51% of the saturates and 53% of the salt.

National Obesity Forum chairman, Tam Fry, said: “I have admired Mr Oliver for 20 years, particularly for his work to tackle childhood obesity. I would be extremely disappointed if he is letting his standards slip for whatever reason. “Children need healthy food and the government is doing little to ensure that unhealthy food in ready meal form is in the bin. Mr Oliver should be ensuring that it is.”

In a section explaining food labels on the NHS website, it says: "If you're choosing foods and drinks that are high in fat, salt and sugar, have these less often and in small amounts. Most people in the UK eat and drink too many calories, too much fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fruit, vegetables, oily fish or fibre." It adds: "…any red on the label means the food is high in fat, saturated fat, salt or sugars, and you should limit your intake of these foods and drinks. Try to eat these foods less often and in small amounts."

Oliver's own website says of reference intake: "These are set by the government and are a guide to show how much of each nutrient an average healthy person should eat over the course of a day. Although the most important thing is to consume a balanced and varied diet, RIs are a useful tool to help us understand food and make healthier choices on a day-to-day basis."

A spokesperson for the Jamie Oliver Group said: “Jamie will always inspire more people to cook but we know time and inspiration are the biggest barriers for busy people. We provide solutions and options, whether that’s the new cook book, Simply Jamie , hacks and tips on JamieOliver.com or something from across our new range. Our frozen meal centres are perfect for when time is short, inspiration is lacking and you don’t want to compromise on quality or taste. Other dishes, like our tasty new cooking pastes, marinades and pouches, all encourage more scratch-ish cooking.” Iceland was approached for comment.