Food costs. What matters to you?

[Theretiredyoungchef]

Does anyone else feel like the flavour of food has gone down in recent years?

Would you be willing to spend more money on a food item if it had good flavour than its mass produced counterparts?

Example:
A 300g bag of ready prepared noodles at £1.75 but the flavour isn't the best...
OR a 300g bag of ready prepared noodles at £3.50 but the flavour is really good

Personally I would spend more if it meant I was getting more flavour from the product.

I'm all for spending more on food ingredients if the quality is better. I don't really spend much on anything else aside from the odd things for baby.

Shrinkflation annoys me, but I'll just eat a couple of packets of crisps rather than just the one instead

I don't think noodles are a good example. They are a background carb, always eaten with other ingredients so the taste is not so important. And why buy ready-cooked when dry are so much cheaper ?
It's trial & error for me with manufactured foods. Some products I stick to branded names, others I'm happy with supermarkets' own brands.

Personally I would spend more but a lot of people just don’t have the budget to do that.

Quality is important to me - so I pay more for high welfare good quality meat for instance. I'd rather eat it less frequently if that's what it took to buy it.
Some products I won't compromise on - heinz beans for instance. I'll pay more for them rather than buying own brand for much cheaper because I don't think it is worth it.
I'd pay more for good quality eggs, but it depends what I'm using them for. Always free range (or highest welfare possible when bird flu is around) but I won't buy Burford browns to make a cake! But I would for poached or scrambled eggs, especially if we had guests.
So I think I work on a case by case basis. I have some fabulous olive oil, purchased in Italy which I adore. But I also have some cheap bog standard stuff that is a world away but perfectly decent for using in a general recipe.

I am in a position to pay more for quality , welfare and taste. I am compromising by buying less of the expensive items eg meat, being much more aware of offers and shopping around. I try hard to buy British .My overall spend has still gone up a lot.

Noodles were the only thing I could think of at the time of making this post 🤣🤣🤣

There’s no need to pay more for better flavour. For meat, dairy, eggs and veg, I buy direct from the producer because they are similar in quality or better than supermarket luxury ranges for a similar price. And in some cases are delivered to my door. Costs have gone up but we’ve cut down on eating out and no longer buy coffee out of the home.

I think I might have worded my question wrong.

What I mean is, I've noticed a lot of mass produced foods don't actually have much flavour as you would expect as they try to cut costs while maximizing profits.

so would you spend a little more on something that was made by a small producer that was more flavorful/better quality than those mass produced products?

quality and lack of processing/additives is important to me. In that scenario I’d only ever buy plain noddles.

I would spend more and buy better quality or from a small producer if it was a product where I really valued the taste. So I tend to buy better quality cheese, tea, meat/fish and bread as I value and enjoy these. I wouldn't for products that I am less bothered about or can't taste the difference, eg potatoes, most tinned or dried food, sauces.

As a general rule, I don't find that there's necessarily a correlation between higher cost and better tasting product when you're talking about mass produced food. Often you're just paying for branding.

There are some things where I prefer a different variety (e.g I like Jazz apples, which are more expensive than say Braeburn) and I would buy the variety I like.

Overall, I find for the best tasting food, it's better to make your own fresh from simple ingredients, which isn't necessarily expensive.

A well stocked dried herb and spice cupboard is what you need, rather than expensive convenience foods

We've switched to all supermarket brands recently and haven't noticed the slightest difference in taste. In some instances own brand is better. In all cases we're saving at least 30/40% on the price which makes everything taste better!

I agree with pp, you need a full cupboard of spices and seasonings and you can make anything taste better.

i'm partially with the op, i've bought supermarket own brand noodles and they are much worse in terms of texture and flavour than Sharwoods for eg, and Sharwoods costs more. i do buy for flavour a lot and it costs. though often the a little less than perfect fruit amd veg is equally as good as the full price stuff and sometimes really good value

With gluten and lactose intolerant people in our house we end up spending such a lot on food. Even the basic staples cost us a small fortune and we don't get the choice of spending more or less for better worse quality.

On the "normal" foods however I will always spend more to get better taste if I need to, but we mostly cook from scratch (most ready made things are a no go for our family), so that makes it easier to get better flavour for less.

I wouldn't be buying ready prepared in the first place if flavour is what matters. Your example- noodles, I make my own broth, so simple and far tastier plus I control the salt levels

I rarely use mass produced foods except dried pasta, dried noodle nests or similar all ingredients rather than a meal in themselves

I don't think the flavour of foods has lessened. In fact I think with better varieties available we now have tastier tomatoes and strawberries (though you can still get some that taste like water).
But yes, I'm in the fortunate position that I can afford to pay more for, say, Taste the Difference rather than Tesco Value offer (hope I'm not mixing up supermarkets but you get my meaning).

Yes I would (and do) spend more for better quality and flavour. I'm fortunate to have that option.

I wouldn't buy ready prepared noodles, you can get better quality and flavour by making your own.

If you can afford it and have time to plan/ cook, it's a good idea to minimise the number of mass produced products/ ultra processed foods you are buying generally. It's better for your health and your tastebuds!