Supermarket 'Value' ranges

[YaddaYaddaYadda]

Did anyone else read this article at the weekend? What really shocked me was not the rubbish that goes into value foods (pig skin in sausages etc) but that for such a minimal amount the supermarkets could improve the quality. It really upsets me that in the current climate there are people who have no choice about buying value ranges for their families and the supermarkets don't appear to care about the quality of the food.

[whitenoise]

i don't understand why this is so shocking - there is still an ingredients list on the back so you can read what's in it. And it's hardly new esp with sausages

[TigerFeet]

HAve skimmed the article.

Personally I wouldn't buy value meat products for the reasons described, but imo and ime some value stuff is fine. Veg, for instance, is usually the same as the standard range only the wrong size.

I would rather buy a smaller quantity of meat products and bulk it out with pulses and veg than buy a value meat pie or value sausage.

[TigerFeet]

I used value tinned tomatoes in almost everything I cook

[Aitch]

i wouldn't say i was shocked, exactly. they're businesses, they're never going to take a hit on profit if they don't have to. am surprised a meat pie is still a meat pie though, with 7%.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

It depends what else is in it though Aitch. I've made perfectly lovely chicken pies with just scraps of a roast, mushrooms onions and leeks etc.

[SammyK]

I only tend to buy value stuff that can't be affected quality wise such as veg, tinned toms, tinned fruit in own juice. We don't buy as much meat as we used to, buy more vegetables instead, or buying good quality meat when it is reduced and freeze it.

I also save money by buying value wash powder (a huge saving) and cleans just as well.

I do think the supermarkets could be more ethical to us paupers who rely on budget foodstuffs but it is hardly surprising they put profits first is it.

[TigerFeet]

You can call an item of food pretty much anything you like on the big front of pack title (cf Frosties, MArs Bar - not exactly descriptive of the food)

The trick is to look at the legal title - usually found in small type on the back of pack, for a crappy meat pie it'll probably be something along the lines of "a pie containing vegetables, gravy and beef" - the ingredients should be listed in descending order of weight.

[FAQtothefuture]

that's true Devil.

I would how much meat there is as a % in homemade pies that people make.

Once you're work out how much of a % the pastry, gravy, veg etc take up

[Aitch]

oooh, what do you do then TF?

i'm sure your chicken pie is delish, tdwp, i was just meaning that i'd have thought there would be a legal element to the naming. clearly that's not the case.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

I do wonder how much the meat industry will suffer though. It's far easier to guagecheap veg rather than cheap meat, plus with soaring costs more people are eating less meat.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Aitch

[bronze]

It does depend what it is. A lot of things are exactly the same product with different packaging

[TigerFeet]

I'm a food labelling wallah - I approve the copy that goes on food products then make sure that the labels are correct before they go to print.

[Aitch]

i buy value onions. they seem to be onions with one more layer of dirty skin, that's all. the rest of the value veg is also fine, imo, just a bit knobblier.

i will never touch a value sausage, and rarely buy chicken breasts cos of those weird sugar/water tumblers the dutch put them in.

[Aitch]

i would like that job, i think. you can't change a rustler's micro burger to 'shite in a bap' can you?

[wheresthehamster]

Anyone ever eaten a Value seafood stick? I looked at the ingredients while in Tesco and the main one is water (over 50%). Can this seriously still be called 'food'? Why bother producing it at all

[Aitch]

lol, but what is a high-quality seafood stick? bleurgh, they're all deeeesgusting, i prefer my seafood not to come in stick form.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Oh I love the word wallah. Have a whole pie (be warned it's usually full of cream too)

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Surely it's 50% water because it's frozen.

[YaddaYaddaYadda]

TF - what an interesting job!

So how come pretty much any part of a pig counts as 'pork' on the label?

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Why wouldn't it, you get pork chops pork loin pork other stuff... Argh I don't know.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Tigerfeet you realise you could be bombarded with questions. mnhq should do an online chat with you, much better than some of the tossers they've had.

[YaddaYaddaYadda]

Sorry, am just trying to get my head round the idea that pig skin counts as pork...

Has anyone else read 'not on the label' or 'eat your heart out' by Felicity Lawrence? Reading them made me vow to buy as little as possible from supermarkets... and the chapter on chicken nearly made me throw up...

[curlygal]

I did read the article but thought it was pretty one sided.

It only mentioned convienience foods, really not the basics that other posters mention.

I must say that I would rather not have sausages at all than buy value ones full of pigs bollocks and eye lids, but happily buy value veg onions and peppers are MUCH cheaper can cannot taste any difference esp once cooked in a stew etc. Value cereals vary widely - tesoc value muesli is really quite pleasant (esp if you add more fruit and perhaps some extra oats) and corn flakes are fine. Sainsburys value "rice pops" are RANK, don;t ever bother.

Other articles I;ve read have said that some value stuff is actually better as lower in additives etc.

Wouldn't write off value range by any means.