Hi °C | Lo °C Some supermarket salads contain more fat than a Big Mac and fries, consumer group Which? has found, with leafy lunches stocked at Morrisons and among the least healthy options.
The Smedleys Atlantic Prawn Marie Rose Salad, sold at a number of supermarkets including Morrisons, contains 855 calories and 66.3g fat — 70% of the fat a man should eat in a day.
In contrast, a Big Mac and medium fries contains 820 |calories and 40g of fat.
Another “unhealthy” pre-packed salad was the Asda Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad which contained 41g of fat – nearly as much as six Cadbury Creme Eggs.
Almost a quarter of this salad was made up of high calorie sauce — 13% mayonnaise and 10% |caesar dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing was the second highest ingredient in an M&S Pasta with Tomato & Basil Chicken salad which had 760 |calories and 46g fat.
Sainsbury's Tomato & Basil Chicken salad was also found to be high in fat.
Findings showed the Tesco Tuna layered salad only listed calories per half pack rather than showing the 550 calories and 41g fat found in a full salad.
Martyn Hocking, of Which?, said: “If you thought your high street salad was healthy, you could be in for a surprise.
“Which? has found large |differences between the amount of fat, saturated fat, salt and calories in pre-packaged salads.
“This latest research backs up what we've been saying for ages — a clear, consistent labelling scheme is important to help people spot how much fat, sugar and salt is in the food they're buying.”
Sainsbury's insisted it offered “a range of salads” to cater for a broad spectrum of customers.
A spokesman said: “The salad highlighted by Which? is clearly labelled red for fat but is also labelled green for saturates as it contains only 2.1g of saturated fat as a result of the work we have done to reduce saturate levels.”
Which? sampled 20 salads to compile its report. Of these, it found several “healthy options” including Sainsbury's Rainbow Salad, containing soya beans and lentils. Sainsbury's Thai Chicken Noodle was also found low in fat.
