The Truth About Ready Meals: What They Don’t Want You to Know

Not all ready meals are created equal. In fact, most of them are designed for one thing—profit.

Big food brands know you’re busy. They know you want convenience. And they take full advantage of that by loading their meals with cheap, highly processed ingredients that compromise your health.

At Little Hawk Freo, we do things differently. We believe in full transparency, premium ingredients, and meals that actually nourish your body—without the highly processed and harmful ingredients that most food manufacturers sneak into their products.

If you’re serious about what you eat (and what you feed your family), it’s time to start reading ingredient labels like your health depends on it—because it does.

Here’s what to watch out for (and why we refuse to use these low-grade ingredients in our meals).

Refined Oils: The Silent Destroyer of Health

Refined vegetable oils—like canola, sunflower, soybean, and corn oil—are the food industry’s dirty little secret. They’re cheap, they’re highly processed, and they’re everywhere. But they come at a cost:

• Inflammation & Chronic Disease – These oils are packed with unstable fats that oxidize easily, leading to inflammation, cellular damage, and an increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and autoimmune conditions.

• Chemical Processing – Many of these oils are extracted with hexane (a petroleum-based solvent) and then bleached and deodorised to mask their rancidity.

• Nutrient Void – Unlike extra virgin olive oil or grass-fed butter, refined oils offer zero nutritional value—they’re just industrial fillers.

At Little Hawk Freo, our meals are made using extra virgin olive oil only.

Many vegetable oils are made using chemical solvents and offer zero nutritional value.

Hidden Sugars: The Legal Addiction

Most people think sugar is just in desserts. Wrong. Food manufacturers sneak sugar into everything—even savory meals—to make them more addictive.

• Over 50 Hidden Names – dextrose, maltodextrin, cane syrup, high-fructose corn syrup… it’s all the same thing. Sugar. And it’s in everything from salad dressings to so-called “healthy” ready meals.

• Spiking & Crashing – sugar sends your blood sugar soaring, only to leave you crashing soon after—leading to cravings, energy dips, and long-term metabolic damage.

• Systemic Inflammation – excess sugar feeds bad gut bacteria, disrupts digestion, and fuels chronic inflammation (a root cause of countless modern diseases).

At Little Hawk Freo we refuse to add sugar just to hook customers. Our meals taste incredible because they’re made with real ingredients, not artificial flavor tricks.

Sugar goes by many names, none of which we use in our ready meals.

Cheap, Conventionally Farmed Meats: The Industry’s Biggest Scam

Most ready meals use factory-farmed meat. Why? Because it’s cheap, mass-produced, and easy to hide behind fancy packaging. But here’s what they don’t tell you:

• Pumped with Antibiotics & Hormones – factory-farmed animals live in crowded, unsanitary conditions, so they’re routinely dosed with antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to be processed. These antibiotics don’t just disappear—they end up in your food and contribute to antibiotic resistance.

• Toxic Fat Profile – grain-fed, conventionally raised meat is higher in inflammatory omega-6 fats and lower in beneficial nutrients like omega-3s, vitamin E, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

• Ethically & Environmentally Damaging – the conditions these animals endure are beyond cruel, and the environmental footprint of factory farming is massive.

At Little Hawk Freo, we only use grass-fed, free-range meats and eggs — because your health (and the planet) deserves better.

Factory farmed eat is full of antibiotics and growth hormones, and has a huge ethical and environmental impact.

Cage Eggs: The Absolute Worst Choice

Eggs are supposed to be a powerhouse of nutrition. But not if they come from battery-caged hens.

• Nutrient-Depleted – cage eggs have fewer omega-3s, less vitamin D, and lower overall nutritional value than their pasture-raised counterparts.

• Raised in stressful, unnatural conditions – caged hens spend their entire lives in tiny wire enclosures, never seeing the sun, never foraging, and living in pure stress—which affects the quality of their eggs.

• Antibiotics & synthetic feed – just like factory-farmed meat, caged hens are often fed unnatural diets and given antibiotics to counteract disease-prone conditions.

We only use pasture-raised, free-range eggs from WA’s own Katie Joys, because if it’s not good enough for our families, it’s not good enough for yours.

The Bottom Line: Most Ready Meals Are Junk Disguised as Food

The food industry thrives on shortcuts. It’s cheaper to use refined oils, cheaper to add sugar instead of real flavours, cheaper to source factory-farmed meat, and cheaper to use caged eggs.

But “cheap” doesn’t mean better—it means lower quality, worse health outcomes, and food that isn’t designed to nourish you.

We don’t cut corners. We don’t do “cheap.” We do quality, integrity, and real food—because that’s what we stand for.

If you want meals made with the best ingredients on the market, free from the industrial fillers and hidden nasties found in most ready meals, you’re in the right place.

We’re not just another food brand. We’re leading a revolution in ready-made meals that actually support your health.

Ready to taste the difference? Check out our range of whole-food, clean-ingredient meals now.

Your body will thank you.