Pack of Birds Eye Fish Fingers £7.50 !! WTF?

[planedelay]

In Tesco today. Birds Eye normal code fish fingers. 30 pack, so the largest of the standard size packets but not a huge pack. And they were £7.50!! How much?! For bloody fish fingers!

I asked the lady on the check out till and she couldn't believe it either.

I expected them to be about £4. I bought Tesco own at £3.30.

AIBU to think that a what should be a cheap family staple should not be seven pounds bloody 50? And why?

What else is going to rocket in price?

What exactly is incomparable between birds eye cod fish fingers and Tesco cod fish fingers?

The Tesco fish fingers in question are pollock, not cod.

To be honest, I was also wondering why lamb mince going up in price would mean having to switch to ready made meals.
We made shepherd‘s pie (or a very similar dish, I‘m not British so don’t know all the details 🙂) yesterday.
500 g of beef mince from Aldi with lots of carrots and peas and a thick layer of mashed potatoes on top. Very tasty and very filling - it fed five people and there is one portion left.

Tesco do own brand cod fish fingers in addition to the pollock ones. As do most supermarkets.

Cost of living crisis indeed.
There are people who are genuinely struggling and relying on food banks - that is indeed crisis point.
Then there are people in uproar because they insist on buying branded cod fish fingers instead of regular supermarket own ‘omega 3’ (generally pollock) fish fingers and find it’s now too expensive.
I wish people would stop throwing these two scenarios into the same basket. It’s embarrassing.

This thread is peak mumsnet lmao

Tesco do own brand cod fish fingers in addition to the pollock ones. As do most supermarkets.

OP is talking about the 30 pack of own brand fish fingers which cost £3.30 and are pollock.

You wouldn't want to live in Ireland. I haven't seen a 30pk here, a 20 pk in Tesco 7.95 euro and a 16 pk in Dunnes 7.99 euro.

Errr why would there be competitive under eating??

You and yours eat 16 between you, others are happy with 2 or 3. So what?

Maybe you're feeling self-conscious about your dietary habits and feel the need to project onto to others by implying they are in fact not telling the truth - is that it?

Pollock/pollack can refer to one of two different fishes found in UK waters. One of which is also called coley/coalfish which is the more usual fish used for cat food, etc. They're both good eating. They're just not cod.

The fish found in fish fingers is a third species, Alaskan Pollock.

UK consumers aren't very adventurous and aren't very knowledgeable about fish. 65-75% of all fish eaten in the UK is just five types:

• Cod
• Haddock
• Tuna
• Salmon
• Prawns

UK waters contain a very wide range of species, but people in the UK generally don't like fish unless it's something we recognise. So we export a lot of excellent seafood (or we try to, Brexit made this a lot harder) that's far more sustainable and far better value.

Re: BE vs own brand fish fingers, I answered this question upthread:

Birds Eye cod fish fingers are 58% cod and the box is 840 g for £7.50.
Iceland cod fish fingers are 63% cod and the box is 900 g for £5.
Asda cod fish fingers are 64% cod and the box is 900 g for £5.50

I can't see Tesco cod fish fingers online but I think a PP mentions them and the percentage cod is the same as other supermarkets, ie higher than Birds eye.

So it seems that supermarket fish fingers have more fish and are slightly bigger than BE fish fingers, which I would take as being better quality.

It is cheaper buy fresh, boneless Mackerel if you want fish for dinner and much better for you!

Not if you buy own brand cod fish fingers. Besides there is nothing wrong with Pollock. Its a cheaper white fish but people in the UK are so obsessed with cod, like its the only fish available. If you're eating a fish finger, it's a cheap, cheerful dinner, not fine dining!

Petrol has shot up - trawlers drink fuel

Nothing wrong with Pollock

Even my bird-like-eater 8 yo DD has 4!!!
Who on Earth eats 3 fish fingers as a meal?! Even with chips and beans.

4 is a standard, between two buttered white bread slices. Am desperate for a FF sandwich now

Hi @PlumPudd sorry have been at work

Just as an example. The hake fishery in this area is labelled as sustainable because the stocks are apparently healthy. However the methods used to catch it - gillnetting whereby set nets are laid and left and later retrieved - are strongly implicated in the bycatch of harbour porpoises. But the focus of the certification is stock size. It can be easy to tell if an animal has been bycaught and asphyxiated then washed ashore in a gillnet if you know what you're looking for.

This is one example. There are others

Which is why I avoid netted fish 🤷‍♀️

Equally you could make more then one meal with 30 fish fingers

If course you can, but I find it hard to get my head around people complaining that ultra processed crap has gone up in price. If things are going to be so shit in the UK, I'd be trying to get as much nutrition down may kids throats as I could.

I just went to Tesco to buy 23 massive carrots for something I am making. It cost 28p. People say you can't heat healthy if you don't have a lot of money. I think that is incorrect.

Sorry, 2 carrots, not 23. That would be a bargain.

I completely misunderstood your previous comment. Sorry.

This is a decent guide to the differences in sustainability between the catch methods used for different species.
www.cornwallgoodseafoodguide.org.uk/

I prefer fresh line caught. But the problem they don't always want to get onto the hook.

Hi @DogInATent
Yes I like that one better than the MSC labels.

Fair enough @HesterShaw1. No scheme is perfect. I tend to take the approach that - if the majority of the world is going to eat netted fish - better that they eat it from fisheries that have oversight and are obligated to minimise bycatch, even if still catching some, rather than those that have no oversight and overfish at will.

Eating line caught locally sourced fish, just isn’t an option for everyone, (price / availability) and even if it were, a lot of people don’t really care how their fish is caught (or don’t care enough to stop eating fish fingers or purse Seine caught tuna or pay for more a different brand) so better that big brands and supermarkets sign up to sustainability labels for products that are produced for the masses, not just for the discerning few.

With nearly 8 billion humans on the planet, we need schemes / solutions / laws that work for the ways most food is produced and caught. Else the overall impact on the planet will be minimal.

I tend to think there is room for both kinds of labels / schemes, and that you can personally choose to buy high welfare, organic, pasture for life reared meat (at three times the cost) while still being glad that the more big standard organic label exists (at double the cost) and that the red tractor label exists. As they’re all far far better than nothing.

Of course the ultimate solution would be for governments to legislate against overfishing etc. instead of leaving it in the hands of labels and NGOs.

“Bog” standard not big standard

All you're saying is true

All I can do about it really is not eat netted fish and explain why I don't. I know I'll make fuck a

What happened there?

I know I'll make fuck all difference in the grand scheme of things especially when there are Dutch supertrawlwrs working just off our coast.

Depressing