Chinese Food is being given a more healthy image by ready meals manufacturer Oriental Express Frozen Foods (OEFF).
The company has launched China Light, which it claims is the first branded healthy frozen Chinese meal range, and which it says will remove the guilt factor that people often associate with Chinese food.
The new recipes have been specially created to offer a balanced meal solution and to be lower in fat and salt than conventional Chinese ready meals. The meals contain less than 3% fat and less than 1% salt and at least one of the recommended five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables.
The China Light range consists of five dishes: Honey & Ginger Chicken with Red Pepper Rice, Thai Vegetable Curry with Noodles, Chinese Beef in Chilli & Tomato Sauce with Spring Onion Rice, Thai Vegetable Curry with Noodles, Chicken in Hoi Sin Sauce with Red Pepper Rice, and Char Sui Pork in Plum Sauce with Spring Onion Rice.
Michaela Blunden, marketing director at OEFF, says the new meals are not being targeted at the market for diet foods, but instead at people looking to eat more healthily. "There is a clear gap in the market for a healthy branded Chinese frozen ready meals proposition. China Light is not a diet product, but instead a healthy Chinese meal solution."