How fresh is fresh?

If your chilled ready meal has a long shelf-life (i.e., more than a few days), it will have to have been preserved to achieve this extended shelf life. This is done by by re-heating the product after it has already been cooked and packed to in excess of 75⁰C to kill any spoilage bugs. This process is called  pasteurisation.

Obviously when the food is heated again like this, it destroys natural vitamins and minerals and makes the food taste overcooked. Natural flavours alter, as does the texture and colour of meal.

We freeze in our goodness. So there’s no second-cooking to change the home made flavours and freezing retains the essential vitamins and minerals.