Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

UPF's at M&S!

29 replies

Tesseracted · 28/10/2024 17:09

We are having a laugh going down memory lane, remembering Findus crispy pancakes and other 'junk' from our teens, and then I googled them to see if they were still around.
Well yes they are, and I was surprised by the lack of crap in the ingredients compared to much more expensive stuff from M&S.

Have noticed so much unnecessary, awful ingredients in M&S food this past year, and just can't work out why they're doing it. Some of their bread packs in more 'E' numbers, emulsifiers and palm oil than cheap and cheerful packet loaves in Heron foods.
A box of coated chicken/fish bites are swimming in crap, even though a handful of them will set you back close to £5.

Always considered M&S the ones to trust for 'nicer' goods, previously. It's as if they've gone full pelt down the UPF rabbit hole with no hope of a return. There isn't much difference now between what you will find in cheap frozen nuggets and an M&S 'special'.
Sad to see it really, as have always loved shopping there, but there are so few options that are palm oil free now, from ready meals, to bread, to basically anything that isn't raw.

Here are the ingredients to the Findus cheesy pancakes (we all know they're crap, but compare the price and ingredients to a 'higher quality' product from M&S):

Findus Pancake £2.50 - Water, Wheat Flour, Breadcrumbs (Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Paprika, Salt, Turmeric, Dextrose), Pasteurised Whole Egg, Vegetarian Mozzarella Cheese (Milk) (3%), Skimmed Milk Powder, Vegetarian Emmental Cheese (Milk) (2%), Salt, Sunflower Oil, Natural Colour (Beta Carotene)

Compared with M&S Haddock Fingers £4.75:

Haddock (Fish) (56%), Wheatflour contains Gluten (with Wheatflour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Rapeseed Oil, Wheat Starch (contains Gluten), Salt, Raising Agent: Sodium Bicarbonate, E450, E503, Palm Oil, Maize Flour, Sunflower Oil, Dextrose, Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Colour: Paprika Extract, Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin

It's grim isn't it?

OP posts:
Supermand · 28/10/2024 17:50

M&S is just another supermarket and it’s always had a lot of pre-prepared stuff. I definitely don’t think of it as low UPF.

Twentybottlesofbeer · 28/10/2024 17:49

Their white sliced bread in the green or red packet tastes more like cake than bread... And I've just looked at the ingredients of the white crafted sourdough and it's got barley malt in. That is not a traditional sourdough ingredient!

If i am craving a bog standard white sliced loaf, I get the one in the blue packet from aldi.

Tesseracted · 28/10/2024 17:34

Agree, the quality of the meat still pulls me in but they could do much better than this. A few healthier bread options from the tons on offer would sell very well!

OP posts:
Raberta · 28/10/2024 17:20

I've never thought M&S had less upfs than other shops? I think that M&S costs more because it tends to contain more of the expensive ingredients in a given dish. Ie fish pie will have more fish and nicer cheese than equivalent Lidl version, for example. But exactly the same upfs, as they are basically for stability and shelf life.