I picked up a few of Patak’s shelf-stable Indian meals at the Grocery Outlet to try them out. I’m familiar with Patak’s products from life in Ireland and Scotland, as they’re a *UK-based brand. According to The Guardian, Patak’s were supplying a staggering three quarters of British curry houses with sauces and spices by 2007 (the BBC made an even higher claim: 90%!). I’ve tried a few Patak’s products over the years – chutneys, pappadums, maybe a sauce once or twice – but this was my first time trying their shelf-stable meals.
*To celebrate this first review of a UK brand on Ethical Bargains, please read with your best British accent.
The first meal I tried from Patak’s was the chickpea and veggie korma, available for $2.69 at the Grocery Outlet. Veggie korma is probably my favorite Indian meal to cook at home, so the bar is fairly high here 😉
Patak’s korma was a little too mild for me at first, but I can’t really blame them for that – it’s clearly labeled as mild! After adding some freshly-chopped jalapeno the meal became more interesting to me. It’s creamy and spicy and, although not as good as homemade, is pretty satisfying once the heat level is adjusted.
Patak’s shelf-stable meals – ingredients and nutrition facts
Here’s the ingredient list for Patak’s chickpea and veggie korma:
Water, Chickpeas, Coconut milk, Onions, Green peas, Potatoes, Carrots, Desiccated coconut, Green beans, Cauliflowers, Sunflower oil, Tomato paste, Red kidney beans, Ginger paste, Garlic paste, Salt, Coriander leaves, Turmeric powder, Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Cinnamon powder, Green cardamom powder, Black pepper powder, Clove powder.
Unlike many other shelf-stable Indian meals, Patak’s admits that you’ll probably eat the whole pouch-full in one go. That said, you could actually stretch it to two meals by serving with plenty of rice, naan, and/or freshly-cooked veggies.
But if you do scarf down the lot you’ll be getting 9 g protein, 7 g fiber, 17 g fat, 3.3 mg of iron (20% and 40% of the RDA for women and men, respectively) and 740 mg of sodium (32% of the RDA). More than half the fat is saturated but it’s from coconut (rich in medium-chain triglycerides) and that’s normal for korma.
Overall, I’m happy enough with the product from the perspectives of ingredients and nutritional content. Ingredients are not organic though – check out Tasty Bite for organic shelf-stable Indian meals.
Patak’s, owned by Associated British Foods
Patak’s journey began as an immigrant kitchen operation in 1950s London.
The company was founded in 1957 by Kirit’s father, Laxmishanker, who came to Britain in the 1950s as a refugee from Kenya, with his wife and six children. He is said to have had just £5 in his pocket when he arrived in the country. – The Guardian.
In 2007 Patak’s was sold to Associated British Foods, which is actually bigger than you might think, owning many brands including Twinings, Mazola, Ovaltine, Ryvita, Jordans, and Kingsmill. Okay, these brands are not to famous in the US, but in the UK you’d be going Oooh, Blimey!, right now. Actually, no, to be honest I can’t think of anyone who’s be that excited about these brands. But it is one of the big food companies.
In fact, Associated British Foods owns some rather big operations like British Sugar and Irish retailer Penneys (known as Primark in other countries) – it just tends to fly under the radar. In fact it was criticized in the past by Oxfam for being less transparent than other food giants like Nestlé and Coca Cola. CEO George G Weston, and the Weston family in general, is known for philanthropy but Associated British Foods is also known for aggressive tax avoidance tactics.
Tax avoidance is not illegal, and it certainly isn’t rare, but it’s not a good look to avoid paying taxes in countries where raw materials are sourced or products assembled.
Taxes pay teachers. Taxes train nurses. Taxes maintain roads, deliver medicine, provide clean water. This is as true in the developing world as it is in the developed world. – ActionAid report on tax avoidance by Associated British Foods.
ActionAid’s investigation found that ABF’s Zambian subsidiary uses an array of transactions that have seen over a third of the company’s pre-tax profits – over US$13.8 million a year – paid out of Zambia, into and via tax haven sister companies in Ireland, Mauritius and the Netherlands. – ActionAid
When you think about it, it’s really quite awful to avoid taxes in Global South countries that could have done with that income for education, infrastructure, water and sanitation, etc. If you’re really into philanthropy, Weston family, then pay taxes where they are much needed!
Ethical rating for Patak’s shelf-stable Indian meals
Ready-to-eat Indian meals are clearly a big business and I’ll take a broad look at their social and environmental impact on the GSP. I’ve tried meals from Hocco, Tasty Bite, Geeta’s, and Patak’s, so far – all purchased at the Grocery Outlet.
I’m scoring Patak’s Indian meals 4 out of 5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on the following:
- Most of Patak’s shelf-stable meals are vegan and the others are vegetarian (containing small amounts of dairy).
- Most products are based on legumes and veggies. As described in the seminal paper by Oxford scientists, Poore and Nemecek (2018), the environmental footprints of legumes are 50 to 100 times smaller than those of beef.
- Patak’s products use Canola oil (or coconut) rather than Palm oil. I’m happy to hear this. Canola (rapeseed) is one of the best vegetable oils from both sustainability and health perspectives.
- I’ll discuss the packaging in my overview of shelf-stable Indian meals on the GSP. The downside of its disposability is offset by the upsides of reducing food waste (extended shelf-life products have been shown to reduce food waste) and not requiring refrigeration (most refrigerants are potent greenhouse gases).
- Patak’s is owned by Associated British Foods, which looks mediocre in terms of social and environmental impact. Among other things, ABF needs to do better on paying taxes that support development in the Global South.
- ABF has improved on transparency, with annual reports that include numbers on environmental and social metrics. Unfortunately, the content is not all that inspiring to me. To give one example: “The overall proportion of cage-free eggs purchased within the Group remained flat at 26% compared to 2024.” That’s pretty bad going, old chaps! I was criticizing Campbell’s for their last-minute switch to cage-free eggs, but ABF are way behind.
It’s the same old story of a brand with a decent reputation owned by a mediocre parent. This drags the rating for Patak’s down a little, but the benefits of legumes are such that it’s still a pretty high 4/5 Green Stars. Cheerio!
Join the Green Stars Project!
Join the movement to hold corporations accountable (and recognize those with more positive impacts) by including a Green Stars rating when you review a product or business. Also, check out my sister site, The Green Stars Project, for a wider discussion on ethical consumption and social/environmental issues.
Here are a few GSP articles relevant to this post:
- The Ethical Guide to… Self-stable Indian meals (coming soon)
- Environmental footprints of food
- Tetra Pak
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