Supermarkets investing heavily in ready-made meal revival

Pre-prepared supermarket meals have long been the convenient option for time-poor Australians to feed themselves and now, they're becoming fresher and tastier.

Nutritionist Amelia Phillips says it is all about making smart choices when feeding yourself or your family with pre-prepared supermarket meals.

"They are convenient, they are really good at teaching you about correct portion sizes and they are healthier than fast food," she told A Current Affair.

"If you had to just focus on three things, it would be the fat content, the sodium content and making sure there's a minimum of two vegetables in there."

But if you're cooking for the family, Amelia says preparation will often save you money.

"Ultimately, the best thing you could do is to cook a big batch at home, pre-portion them out, stick them in your freezer and you've got your own healthy, cheap, takeaway food," she said.

Coles has mastered the taste factor, with Australian shoppers awarding the supermarket a winner in the ready-made meal category of this year's Product of the Year competition.

"At Coles, we have an Australian-first policy when it comes to all our ingredients and all our ready-made meals are made here in Australia," Coles spokesperson Simon McDowell said.

For Woolworths, it's all about high-quality fresh products.

"Woolies tries really hard to make sure that if you're going to buy a convenient ready meal, you're not going to compromise on nutrition or quality, and you're going to get a product at a great price," Woolworth's Food Co general manager said.

9Honey contributor Melinda Ayre is a working mother of two and says she always has a selection of ready meals in the fridge at home.

"I kind of look at my time and the ingredients I would have to buy to put together something like an Indian curry. You're going to end up spending $30 to $40 on ingredients," she said.

"When you do get home on those nights where you're exhausted, you don't know what to cook or you just know ahead of time that you're going to have a really, really busy day, they can just be your fall back meal."

"You can keep everyone happy and it's a lot cheaper than cooking from scratch."