Brand vs. Own Label?

[cinnamonbagel]

I've been wondering for a while now, even though own label foods (such as tesco value etc.) are cheaper - should i be feeding my 8 year old son brand labels [for things such as squash, cereal and main meals]

I've had the concern for a while, in terms of quality of the food/drink and whether it's worth spending more. What do you think?

(this doesn't include curiously cinnamon, which I LOVE - and you can't get an own label version of!)

Depends where you get them from.

Sainsbos value stuff is really good - well worth a go.

But I don't think the Asda and Tesco value stuff is any cop.

It's worth a try though. It's certainly a lot cheaper.

For meat Waitrose essentials is really good - they often have 3 for a tenner on stuff like chops, sausages etc, all very good quality indeed.

Its a real balancing act I think because in some cases the own brand uses less sugar and additives (obviously to save money) while in other cases there are more of those in the product. So I think you'd have to compare specific items and decide which ones are worth the extra cost and which that are not. You can also do a 'blink taste' test. In other words if you can't taste the difference then go for the cheaper option. Great question and I'll watch with interest to see what others think.

It's a value for money issue. You have to judge the quality vs price. Brands tend to be more expensive than own label because they have fancy marketing budgets, but the 'value' versions are usually cheaper because they've been made with inferior ingredients.

For example, I buy a lot of canned, chopped tomatoes... pretty simple product. An expensive brand like Napolina has plenty of good-flavoured, good-coloured tomatoes, not so much juice and the juice is quite thick. The Morrisons cans I bought were not such a good flavour and the can was 1/3 watery juice, 2/3 tomatoes. Sainsbury own-label chopped tomatoes, on the other hand, were pretty good.

It's upto you really. I have bought mainly supermarket brands [including many basic]for at least 15 years now. We are all perfectly healthy and I have probably saved thousands of £'s over the years.The only time I usually buy brands [eg Heinz baked beans] is when they are on special offer.
In some cases I think basic brands are actually nicer eg Sainsbury's basic Jaffa cakes are about a million times nicer than the real jaffa cakes [Jacobs?].
I agree with Chil1234 re basic tinned tomatoes though. I usually pay the extra 20p for Sainsbury's own brand, but I definitely wouldn't pay the extra 60p for Napolina tomatoes.
OTOH we love Sainsbury's basic sweetcorn, at 20p a tin. Much cheaper than Jolly green giant.
Really, just keep your sensible head on when you go shopping, remember a lot of the basic foods are cheap just because they're not standard size or something.

Agree with what,s said above. I recall asda's own fruit and fibre type thing having less salt and sugar in than kellogs, and obv cheeper. I wondered about Tesco's value penne as it's cheeper even than their standard own brand penne when bought in bulk (they do a big sack). The ingredients are the same, it looked the same, and crucially took the same time to cook (i'd tried another cheep brand some time ago that turned out to be really thin pasta!), so yes, it's the same! Just packaged differently. It's always worth checking the price per gram or kilo, displayed on the ticket on the shelf edge. Tesco's value apricots are more expensive gm for gm than their normal own brand ones!

It sometimes depends on what you're doing with it. Eg value buffalo mozzerella is great for pizza though i'd trade up for a salad. Ditto the fake feta is rank on it's own, but ok cooked on top of a bake!

There are somethings i would never go value on, though these are for ethical issues rather than the product.