Ha ha, that's too much. Next they'll require you to "add spices to taste" as well.

Gooney's for the lunchtime sandwich and salad win. If you work downtown Ottawa, you know what I'm talking about.

Marie Callender meals are notorious for complicated heating instructions. This sounds like a major CYA by the legal department. I would be more concerned what they think can grow in that meal since it is supposedly pre-cooked.

According to step #2 you better understand the wattage of your Microwave as well.

Seems like a lot of work for something that tastes like cardboard.

this is why I make a pot of chili or soup on sunday for the entire week. Measure out a cup, throw it in the microwave. In 2 minutes I have a nice meal that I KNOW is as safe as I can make it because I take proper kitchen precautions.

Banquet meals say the same exact thing, I noticed it a few weeks ago.

I brought Dr. Praeger's spinach pancakes to work and was surprised at lunchtime that there was no microwave option. These frozen treats had to be broiled! ???

I'm too cheap to buy frozen meals but I'd just heat the thing until it starts bubbling and popping. One quick test with the fingers is good enough for me.

I do a lot of scratch cooking and I've never used a meat thermometer because they're never accurate. I'm thinking about buying an extra thermal probe for my husband's multimeter to use for meat. A multimeter will give one heck of an accurate reading!

As long as its steaming and doesn't look undercooked when you cut into it, it's fine.

And generally, those frozen dinners comprise about 47% of your daily sodium intake, all in one convienient packaged meal.

This is exactly why I always just bring leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Cheaper, easier, healthier, and much, much tastier.

I eat salad for lunch, I buy bulk chicken and grill it, then cut it up and microwave the chicken to get it hot before I eat. Some salad and balsamic/oil dressing good shit.

I hate frozen meals, they always taste watery to me.

I've been seeing this kind of stuff more and more on prepared frozen foods. I haven't heard anything as to reasons--must be a CYA move.

@bohemian: Yep. Definitely CYA. Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice do this as well.

BTW, if you have a sedentary job, like I do, and you are NOT eating exclusively diet food at work, you should. OT, I know, but if you're eating Marie Callender's or Boston Market at your white collar desk job, you're going to get fat, your cholesterol is going to spike, and you'll probably be on BP meds eventually as well.

mmm, crockpot at work. They even make teensy ones for this express purpose.

For that matter, if you put your Marie Callender's meal IN your teeny crockpot then it would heat pretty evenly and smell amazing up until lunch, and you would no longer need a food thermometer.

/end Crockpot Proselytizing.

@CreativeLinks: It is, and it's a pet peeve of mine that you have to take the thing out of the microwave, stir it, replace the film, and put it back for another couple of minutes while other people are waiting behind you to nuke their lunches. Can't they make microwave meals that you can just throw in there, nuke it for five minutes, and GBTW? Is that really harder than putting a man on the Moon?

@Sir Winston Thriller: I agree. Some moron blames his stomach flu on the fact that his frozen dinner wasn't cooked well enough because the instructions weren't 100% accurate.

Time for an elimination of dumb lawsuits!

They are only stating that so that if you get sick its not their responsibility. It is not needed to make the meal.

@HurtsSoGood: Dinty Moore, 90 seconds. Of course it isn't frozen and you could make a salt lick out of the thing if you want. Plus bad things happen inside of you after you eat one....really bad things.

Yep, just noticed this on a package of frozen jalapeno poppers. 10 minutes to heat up, ??? minutes to go and find a food thermometer.

I guess this means any old company can get away with adding a little salmonilla now, all they need to do is CYA in the directions and they are good to go.

Although one could always say the thermometer must not have been calibrated correctly, then you can sue the thermometer company.

@Sir Winston Thriller: Me too, it's one thing to put a food safety reminder but another to expect people follow it as a step.

@Megan Squier: You can make them accurate though by calibrating them first and then repeating that every so often. Many of the thermometers like the one on the box have a calibration nut on them. What you do is fill a quart Pyrex with a mix of ice and water. Put the thermometer in and turn the nut with some pliers until it reads 0 C/32 F. You could do the same thing with boiling water to 100 C/212 F, but the ice/water mix is easier to deal with.

I used to be a microwave devotee but after a series of tiny kitchens and 3 years without one my mind has been changed. Maybe I just lack some skills but I find it nearly impossible to get my meal at work heated correctly before the microwave line starts snaking out the kitchen. I convienience in theory, they just never seem to work for me

How about C) When it tastes like crap you blame it on not having a thermometer and not some junk frozen food

@mariospants:
If they add that "add spices to taste" direction, someone will undoubtedly add too much salt and get high blood pressure and blame the company because "they said to do it!"

@HurtsSoGood: Whenever those brands are 40 or 50% off, I try to pick up a couple for my husband. He's nowhere near overweight, but my health-obsessing self has to read the labels anyway. Needless to say, if I'm going to consume day's worth of sodium in one meal, I'd rather said meal not come from a microwave. Ditto on the fat and whatnot. There are a couple in each line that aren't too horrible, but yeah, for the most part, they're a diet nightmare for the sedentary worker.

@CreativeLinks: About step 2 and the wattages...
I've noticed over time that the oven wattage that the directions are designed for are growing over time. I have a microwave I bought 3 years ago (LG... whoda thunk it'd last so long?) that is 1150W, and I was rather impressed with how quickly the food was done compared to the instructed time which was set for a 700W oven. Now most instructions are for 1100W...
Wattage inflation FTW?

If they don't put that on the package, some knucklehead will sue them after eating undercooked food. CYA.

I think some new regulation actually changed. My fiancé eats a lot of Marie Callender meals, and I eat a lot of Lean Cuisine / Smart Ones (yay work lunch that isn't a sandwich or salad), and within a week of him noticing the temperature thing on his Marie Callender, I started seeing it on my "diet" meals as well.

Suggested to me that someone, somewhere got sued and now it's a universal CYA measure.

@Kixie A: My co-workers would probably lynch me if I did that. It's one thing when the entire office smells like everyone's lunch between 12 and 2, but all damn day?

@bohemian: a major CYA by the legal department...

I saw this on one of our frozen dinners as well and thought the same thing.

But shouldn't there be something in the way of a "reasonable expectations" standard in frozen food? I mean, is it reasonable to EXPECT a person has a food thermometer handy and know how to use it in order to make a frozen meal? Maybe they should pack a thermometer inside every box!?

I'd say B. B explains a lot of nonsense I see on packaging nowadays.

eg. caution contents may be hot on Coffee cups from McDonalds etc.

Lawyers.

Some Morning Star Farms stuff has added this, like their little rice-patty-things. I imagine it's just a CYA move so if someone gets a tummy ache and craps their pants, it doesn't end up on consumer related website.

@HurtsSoGood: The diet packaged foods aren't going to be any better for your BP, though. I agree with a "it's a bad idea to eat oversized, high-in-bad-things packaged frozen foods for lunch every day," but I think that's a problem whether it's ostensibly lo-cal or not.

@chucklebuck: Thanks, I might try that. Although, the multimeter is just one really cool tool, is super accurate and my husband's Craftsman has a really big digital read out.

You might be a redneck if your wife uses mechanic's tools for cooking! :) Just a little joke at my own expense.

@PencilSharp: Most instructions I see are speced for 1000w microwaves. Seems like that's been the defacto standard most companies use. I don't think I ever remember seeing food packacging use anything as low as 700w ever.

@Christopher Michael Dousharm: A lot of frozen microwavable items have that - I noticed that many years ago (not sure how this is all of a sudden "Consumerist news"

Of course the companies have to put all that on there... if not, someone will cook it in an underpowered microwave, bite into a frozen chunk of chicken, and sue because the package did not tell them to check the microwave wattage... or check the internal temperature of the item.

A lot of frozen microwavable items have that - I noticed that many years ago (not sure how this is all of a sudden "Consumerist news"

Of course the companies have to put all that on there... if not, someone will cook it in an underpowered microwave, bite into a frozen chunk of chicken, and sue because the package did not tell them to check the microwave wattage... or check the internal temperature of the item.

This has been on frozen meal packaging for quite a long time from all kinds of brands. I really have no idea why this is even being featured here; common sense ought to tell you this is purely CYA from the legal departments.

This is what happens when lawyers write instructions. Apparently Shakespeare was right about lawyers.

@GuJiaXian: And sometimes I don't cook every night, and there are no leftovers. What to do then?

@Megan Squier: Hey, works for me - I use welding gloves as potholders in the kitchen :).

Banquet (owned by Con Agra foods who also own Marie Callender) had a product recall due to Salmonella in 2007. The implicated product was frozen microwavable chicken pot pies. The issue was that people were following the cooking instructions but the pot pie was not cooking fully because their microwave was not powerful enough. Instead of putting the partly frozen pot pie back in the microwave they ate it anyway and got salmonella poisoning.

I don't think a lawsuit resulted (I'm not totally sure on that) because the meal is not advertised as "ready to eat." If you bought a raw chicken from Tyson and ate it raw and got sick you would have no legal recourse to sue Tyson because a raw chicken is not ready to eat. Some TV dinners contain raw ingredients and shouldn't be eaten without proper cooking.

Maybe the instruction to use a thermometer is a little over the top but be aware that you shouldn't eat a lukewarm microwave meal. Heat it up until it's steaming hot and you should be OK.

My old ghetto Sharp Microwave from the early 80's actually has an attachable temperature probe (don't think I ever used it), so I guess I'm good! Seriously though, it seems more like a liability thing more than anything. I don't think anyone is really gonna get sick from some "warm' pasta or chicken cubes.

I just looked at my Lean Cuisine Parmesan crusted fish and pasta w/veggies meal and all it said was "Cook til fish flakes with a fork and is thoroughly cooked." It said 1100w microwave. The micro at work is less powerful than mine at home, so I just add about 30 seconds or a minute longer to the cooking time.

Lean Cuisine is one of the few frozen meals I actually like but they are too expensive so I only get them when on sale. The fish one is great, and I really like the cheese ravioli one too. :) Sometimes ALDI's has them and I'll grab a bunch. Then when I'm in a hurry I can just yank it out of the freezer on my way out the door.

@HurtsSoGood: Doesn't this also assume that people who have sedentary jobs are also sedentary in the rest of their lives?

Banquet Pot Pies also tell you to make sure they are at least 165 degrees. We changed microwaves and found that you have to cook it shorter with our newer, higher powered one. And I had to do it in increments to find out how long to cook them in order to get the internal temperature correct. But when there's chicken inside, I don't like playing around with salmonella.

I don't eat them at work, and agree that most people won't have a food thermometer at work, but after the first incident, I would either switch to a different food item or learn to keep a thermometer at work. The instructions are not hidden inside the package.

@floraposte: The best solution is to spend a couple of hours once a month on a Sunday or Saturday and make bulk meals, freeze them, and take them to work for lunches. If I don't have a leftover dinner to throw in my lunchbag, it's invariably going to be frozen soup or stew (and sometimes chilis)

@Megan Squier: I make chicken, home-made burgers and steak a lot and that's the tried-and-true method I use. I've never been sick from my own cooking, nor has anyone else.

Plus, I learned to cook in the Boy Scouts, who takes a meat thermometer into the woods?!

@Etoiles: People complaining about break rooms/offices and such having food aromas when others are using them for eating make me wonder if these same people complain about restaurants smelling like food when they eat there.

(not directed at you personally; your comment just reminded me.)