Campaign For Real Salad: Supermarkets vs Sandwich stores
I thought I’d start to examine the supermarket competition in the pre-packaged salad market. Pret a Manger prides itself on its philosophy of providing food that is made ‘avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the ‘prepared’ and ‘fast’ food on the market today.’ So presumably their salads are going to be a good lunch option.
Looking at their website, it’s good to see that their salads are served with the salad dressing ‘served in a small pot giving you the choice to add a lot, a little or none at all.’ This is a good thing, giving the consumer the choice I’ve been banging on about. But then, the supermarkets do the same thing. Asda’s Tuna Salad, for example, has its dressing served in a sachet, so you do still have the choice of how much to add. But this is no doubt intended to keep the salad crisp, rather than to allow consumers the option of ensuring that their salad remains a healthy choice.
Even more strangely, the Pret option specifically states in the ingredient breakdown that you’re getting a ‘large French dressing’, so I’m not sure how that’s a small pot.
So how do they stack up? The Pret Tuna Nicoise does seem to be roughly commensurate with the Asda Tuna Salad in terms of ingredients so lets see how they compare. Pret’s nutritional info divides up between the salad and the dressing, so I’ve added it all together.
Pret Tuna Nicoise Salad
Serving size – 310g
Calories – 399 (per 100g – 129kcals)
Sugar – 4g (per 100g – 1.29g)
Fat – 29.6g (per 100g – 9.5g)
Sat Fat – 4.1g (per 100g – (1.3g)
Ingredients:
Pole and line caught skipjack tuna, baby capers, free-range egg, baby plum tomatores, salad leaves, freshly sliced cucumber, lemon, sliced red onions, pret seasoning, large French dressing
Asda Tuna Salad
Serving size – 220g
Calories – 163 (per 100g – 74kcals)
Sugar – 2.2g (per 100g – 1g)
Fat – 9.24g (per 100g – 4.2g)
Sat Fat – (per 100g – 0.6g)
How right you are – sadly the packaging is sometimes less than helpful – some salads have their nutritional info by the tablespoon!
I avoid pre packed salad! It's the same with 'healthy' sandwiches. Read the packaging is my advice x
Hmm, interesting – perhaps I should look at fast food salads next! Thanks Cheryl.
Wow, 400 calories for a salad is shocking ! I always opt for a salad when we go to Quick (the French version of McDonalds) and leave off the salad dressing, but even so, they have grated carrot drenched in oil (which I spread over as the dressing) and way too much cheese. Surely they must understand that by choosing salad, you want a low-fat/low-calorie option ! Thanks for linking up on the Sunday weigh-in linkie xx