When I see people in the supermarket with a trolley load of ready meals, I often think to myself, do they really not have time to cook meals from scratch? But lately, I’m beginning to understand; when you are really busy, I mean stupidly busy, food moves down the list of priorities.

We’re in the middle of moving house and as you can imagine, we are in chaos and there is just so much to do! When you’ve got so many things going on at once, you can easily even forget to eat, the other evening, we were so busy stripping wall paper that it was 8pm before we realised we were hungry and 10pm before we actually sat down to dinner! Why didn’t we just get a takeaway? Finding a gluten free option at that time involved way too much thought, we had sausages and potatoes, so bangers and mash was the easiest option!

When I heard about The Pure Package, instead of my usual thoughts of why do people really need this service, I actually think it’s a great idea. It’s very straightforward, you contact The Pure Package and discuss your specific dietary requirements, whether you are trying to loose weight, manage a food allergy or intolerance, or want to eat healthily but just do not have time to shop and cook. Then, their team of nutritional and dietary therapists work along side their chefs to create meals that are both delicious and good for you.

Not only do they devise your perfect menu, but they then deliver it all to your door daily at 6am, so that it’s waiting for you when you get up. It’s like Father Christmas! When I looked at The Pure Package website, I realised, there are in fact so many reasons why people don’t get a chance to cook. They provide a great service for new mums who simply do not have time to shop, let alone cook but who need to eat as healthily as possible at such a demanding time. I know one of my best friends would absolutely love this service, she has 3 month old twins and last week it took her 5 hours to make a shepherds pie. She just had to keep stopping at each stage, peel potatoes, feed baby, boil potatoes, feed other baby, cook mince, change babies…you can imagine!

The provenance of their food is as important as it tastes, The Pure Package Programme is based on the principles of the ‘Perfectly Balanced Diet’ and they never compromise on ingredients. They buy ethical produce, all their meats are free range and none of the produce is Genetically Modified – in fact much of it is organic.

You can see example menus on the website and my mouth was watering… Asparagus and smoked chicken salad, dairy free Dark chocolate mousse. It’s hard to believe such yummy food is all part of a perfectly balanced diet but it is and that’s the key, you can just eat and enjoy it, knowing that it is good for you, without stressing over shopping and cooking.

For more information about The Pure Package, I highly recommend a look at their website.

Marks & Spencer has withdrawn some of its Reduced Fat Olive Spread (500g) because the product contains a milk ingredient that is not mentioned on the label, resulting in incorrect allergen information. This means the product is a possible health risk for milk allergic individuals.

Product details

The product being withdrawn is:

• Marks & Spencer Reduced Fat Olive Spread (500g)
• Display until: 18 October 2008
• Best before: 1 November 2008
• Unique product code: 0338370

Marks & Spencer has withdrawn the affected stock from sale and has contacted the relevant allergy support organisations, which will inform their members of the withdrawal. The company has also published details of the withdrawal on its website.

No other Marks & Spencer products are known to be affected.

Reference

FSA 16 July 2008