To think there's nothing wrong with own brand stuff?

[AverageGayLad]

Was in the supermarket earlier and a woman asked her friend to get her some butter - but "a brand, none of that cheap shite".

What is wrong with own brand? :( Sometimes/Mostly that's all I can afford! Isn't it all the same food anyway?

I spend a lot of time reading labels due to food allergies and sensitivities. I read every label and I can tell you, there is certainly a correlation between price and the number of additives, fillers etc.

Obviously this is less of and issue for single ingredient items ie (real) butter, (real) cheese, whole fruits and veg, but with a lot of items which are cheaper "value" lines, they are bulked up with crap fillers and additives and often water which you are then paying for.
Sausages would be an obvious example. I buy Tesco Finest, 97% meat sausages. They are lovely quality, with a very good protein content, no gluten, low carb. They are £2.50 a packet, which is around 50p a packet more than those awful pink-paste sausages you will see on the same shelf- they are chock full of breadcrumb (rusk), additives and much lower in meat/protein. Not very good value after all.

Foggy See I don't usually examine the labels that closely, I didn't realise that was the case for things like meat!

I work in product development for a large food manufacturer that deals with all UK supermarkets. When own label products are being developed we sit and eat every branded and own label version in the whole market to decide which will be the benchmark that we work to for a particular retailer. Many times as others have said the supermarket version is made at the same place as the brand with very similar ingredients. On products like prawns the lower cost ones are just smaller. On things like meat, they won't have such high animal welfare. With supermarkets like aldi/lidl, they just don't expect to make such high margin on their products so they pass savings on to shoppers where other supermarkets charge shoppers more and make bigger profits themselves. It's fine to buy brands but there's no need to be snooty about own label at all...unless we're talking aldi coffee which I find genuinely undrinkable

Very apt username Weird

Averagegay, yes, something to look out for if buying frozen meats too, the cheaper chicken breasts etc can be injected or soaked in water/brine/wheat derivatives to increase the weight...

Foggy I'm SURE Morrisons did a tiny could-fit-in-the-Palm-of-your-hand chicken til a couple weeks ago, that was cheap and suitable for just me yet was still a good brand

I was going to post to say pretty much what WeirdButTrue has said, as my DD works on food product development.
She may even be my daughter, as I know she won't drink the Aldi coffee we buy!
I think it's all a matter of personal taste, eg I buy Aldi or Tesco cheapest value soya milk - I dislike the Alpro one - it tastes chalky to me.

They do pick some right bump ties for that Eat Well for Less programme though. The woman last night was genuinely amazed to learn how to roast a potato after using frozen ones all her life!

Numpties

Most of my shopping is own-brand, shockingly some is even basics range. There are few food things we buy the branded version of though marge is one

I buy loads of own brand stuff...lots of it is just as good and sometimes better...I'm a good cook in my own humble opinion so can make really nice meals with cheap ingredients.

I have a handful of things that I'll only buy branded - butter, bread, coffee, yoghurts, toilet paper, soft drinks being ones that spring to mind. Because the own brands always taste rubbish to me (and in the case of toilet paper, feel rubbish) and I know what I like.

Lots of things I buy value range or from Lidl and you can't tell the difference. But it just depends on people's individual tastes. I know lots of people who must buy Heinz beans but i'm happy enough with Lidls...same goes for cereals, I'll take a cheap Wheat Biscuit over Weetabix any day but there are so many people I know that won't touch them.

I mainly buy value branded stuff or supermarket own brand unless there's special offers on brands that means it's cheaper to get them.

The only stuff I won't buy cheap is meat (value sausages - yuk, not much meat in them) and frozen veg apart from peas and sweetcorn.

AGL are you talking about a spatchcock chicken?

portia. Are you attempting to lower the tone? Or I am I just a culinary disaster?

Is that what it's called??

I buy branded shampoo, deodorant etc but will buy own branded foodstuffs. I actually prefer asda beans to heinz! I also prefer branded washing detergent and fabric softener.

The only branded food I always buy is lurpak and thats because I like the taste better to any other butter I have tried.
I do buy others from time to time if its on offer/cheaper but most of my shop is supermarket own or value.

I doubt the comment was meant in the way that you took it though!

Things I always but branded:
DeCecco or Barillo pasta, Bon maman jam, Toiletries, Nespresso coffee, lurpack spreadable, weetabix. I don't buy any value items apart from fizzy water. I am a big fan of aldi/Lidl. To the poster who compared value ranges to Aldi/Lidl I may suggest you need your taste buds adjusting! When I was a student I had to exist on Tesco value range. Woeful quality. Aldi/Lidl is streets ahead.

Forgot tea! Clipper tea. Can't live without it!

Who me? Never Jess

I don't like buying most own brand stuff because the quality and taste is so variable. Branded stuff is usually the same whenever you buy it, but own brand stuff from the same supermarket is sometimes nice and sometimes not. Brands are more consistant in quality or flavour.

I bought Tesco own brand mature cheddar for a while. When I first started buying it it was mature and the same flavour as brands, but over a few months it became milder and milder until it was significantly less flavoured than the brands. Then they started putting out 'Tesco extra mature cheddar', which tastes the same at the branded 'mature' but cost more.

I think its a clever marketing strategy where the own brand stuff starts out the same quality as the branded stuff but cheaper, people buy the own brand stuff, then the quality of the own brand stuff is slowly reduced over time and people don't notice.

I like to know what I'm going to get and not guess so I'll stick to brands I trust and just buy own brand e.g. veg where it is just the size/shape that is not standard.

My sainsburys basic prawns were fine tonight , no complaints . I'd buy them again

I am quite partial to Lurpak when it's on offer

chicken in the palm of your hand is likely a Poussin, very cute, but a bit too much bone to meat for my liking!

I think about the only thing I will not buy shop brand for is Philadelphia cheese, never ever found one that is as good.