Real Gourmet? Really?

I saw a commercial last night for Michelina's new Real Gourmet line. As it says on the commercial, and on the website, you get just real food, never any preservatives.

Get real food with Real Gourmet™, new from Michelina’s^®. For years, you’ve known us best for our iconic green box that you’ve been enjoying since 1992. But now you’ll know us for our unique parchment pouch that steam cooks each wholesome meal to perfection. With Michelina's^® Real Gourmet^™ you get real cuts of seasoned meat, a full serving of vegetables, and never any preservatives. This calls for the good china, every day.

Aside from the ridiculousness of calling something you pull out a box and nuke in the microwave "real food", one could argue, if it were indeed real food, that it is no different than making multiple servings of homemade food and freezing the leftovers. So do the ingredients actually contain JUST real food? Here they are for the Beef Bourguignon.

ROASTED RED POTATOES (WITH DEXTROSE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE), SEASONED COOKED BEEF (BEEF, WATER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SALT, ONION POWDER, GARLIC POWDER), WATER, ROASTED ZUCCHINI, MUSHROOMS, ROASTED RED PEPPERS, ROASTED YELLOW PEPPERS, CORN STARCH, TOMATO PASTE, RED PORT WINE REDUCTION, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, OLIVE POMACE), CELERY, ONIONS, GARLIC (CONTAINS WATER, CITRIC ACID [ACIDULANT]), FLAVOUR (CONTAINS MILK, SALT), BEEF STOCK (CONCENTRATED BEEF STOCK, YEAST EXTRACT, SALT, CORN OIL), SUGAR, FLAVOUR (POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, MALTODEXTRIN, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, FLAVOUR), YEAST EXTRACT, TOASTED ONION POWDER, PARSLEY FLAKES, SPICE, MIREPOIX FLAVOUR (SUNFLOWER OIL, FLAVOUR), GRANULATED GARLIC. CONTAINS: MILK

I don't know about you, but if I were making beef bourguignon at home, which I have in fact done, I would leave out sodium phosphate, citric acid, yeast extract, potassium chloride, maltodextrin, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate.

Now I could understand if they were putting this out for fresh consumption. But why all the crap when it is going straight into and out of the freezer? You can freeze food without all this other garbage in it. Calling this "real food" is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who ever cooks at home from whole ingredients.