Your views on supermarket "own brand" food?

Question

I am far from a snob and don't have cash to throw about but when I go food shopping there are some items that have to be expensive to avoid getting cr@p like sausages, chicken nuggets, burgers etc. I was in Asda the other day and I was looking at the smart price chicken nuggets for only 71p in the ingredients it says they are only 39% chicken and "some bones may remain". Surely dog food is healthier than that? I would rather spend the extra to make sure my kids eat proper food and go without something else. Am I too fussy?

EQ, I'd class proper food as something that doesn't have chicken lips and cow gibblets in it. When it says 100% breast meet thats fine with me and you are a liar if you never had stuff like that!

Answer 1

I totally agree with you. You get what you pay for in this life, so don't expect Champagne if you are only prepared to spend Beer money!
Economise in other areas of your life by all means, but not food. It is, however, possible to lessen the bill a bit by cooking from scratch more instead of using convenience, ready-made meals. Home cooked should be more nutritional as well. It's not difficult to cook plain, wholesome meals. Most people can read a cookery book.

Answer 2

71p - from the U.K.?

Supermarket-label food in the U.S. is often times made by the same companies as the name brands. Usually the quality is pretty good. However, you're very wise to always check the labels. It takes longer to shop, but you find things like '39% chicken' nuggets. (I wonder if we'd actually enjoy 100% chicken nuggets though... they might be tougher to chew.)

I don't think you're being too fussy. You're putting this food in your body and your kids' bodies.

There is a store chain in the U.S. called Aldi, which sells greatly discounted foods. A lot of their stuff is just fine. How can you sell bad sugar or bad flour? But for things like meats, fruits and vegetables, it can be a risk. Anyway, I'm rambling now, so I'll close. Keep being fussy and best wishes!

Answer 3

Supermarket chicken nuggets are NOT proper food. I just don't understand why people buy all that ready-made convenience crap when you have no idea what's in it, who made it, where it came from, how the chickens were kept etc. You ask are you being too fussy- you're clearly not bothered at all about what you put inside you if you'd consider buying stuff like that.
What is wrong with buying fresh veggies and meat and fish and actual INGREDIENTS and making something from scratch for once?? It's really not that big an effort.

Answer 4

No you are not too fussy. In terms of supermarket "own brand" food, I like the majority of their products over so called "brand name" products because they usually try to copy from the brand name ones and then improve the quality further by reducing the calories and fat or/and adding more vitamans, omega 3, and other good stuff. And they are almost always cheaper than the brand names ones, which is why they can compete and survive in the market. But I do agree with you sometimes supermarket "own brand" foods are worse than the brand name ones because the people who create the food simply cannot capture what exactly the market wants, which is natural.

Answer 5

Syrup and yogurt is a good mix especially if you make your own yogurt. We like smoothies in the summer. I never use a recipe. I just pull out the blender and pour in a cup of yogurt. I start tossing in whatever fruit I have on hand. I sweeten with a little honey and thin it with a little milk if necessary. If you like icy smoothies, freeze some milk in an ice cube tray and drop in a few cubes. I fried chicken with a crushed Ritz cracker coating when I realized I was out of flour. Now I use that coating deliberately on occasion. It's pretty good on breaded pork chops too. After I'd done this a couple of times, I found a recipe in an old cookbook. So, I guess it wasn't all that original. Way back when I was in junior high school, my best friend and I fried up some breaded dill pickle slices and pickled beets. They were pretty terrible as I remember but neither of us would admit it at the time.

Answer 6

I would suggest if you are worried that you make your own burgers etc. To be honest i don't like processed food at all and would rather eat raw food than burgers. However you could make very good bolognaise with mince and some tomatoes etc . Most children like spaghetti. Then as a treat they can have chicken nuggets when they go to McDonalds for a treat

Answer 7

Own label food tends to be healthier than branded - so this is not a bad thing.

As each store is in competition with each to add value and conform to the media, they tend to embrace healthier food quicker than branded producers. Changes in own label positioning of product occurs much faster as the multiples have more control over packaging, suppliers and are continually refreshing tenders etc......

A good example is childrens branded food - almost every multiple has a defined list of prohibited colours that are far, far stricter in use than any of the large manufacturers - i.e. tartrazine, azo dyes, m.s.g., hydrogenated fats etc are not allowed, yet are happily purchased in branded products were the focus is not directly on the store. Even value lines are subject to the same stringent controls.

So no, "own brand" food is not that cr@p.....

Answer 8

I think a lot of 'own brand' foods are made by a well known manufacturer.
I know what it's like to have to be careful with money, and have been very grateful for 'own brands', but I found that buying basic ingredients and cooking yourself is a much healthier option, and minced meat is very versatile. You can always get your children involved with making burgers.

Answer 9

I agree I would rather buy brand named products rather than the supermarket own brand foods. For one thing you can taste the difference, even though many people might say that you can't I believe that you can. Once I brought a supermarket own product type of Cornflakes instead of the Kellogg's variety and it tasted so horrible and cheap I ended up throwing it away. I'm not saying that for certain things you shouldn't buy the shop own products for example tinned tomatoes would be okay, but on certain products you should still to the brand names

Answer 10

I know exactly what you mean. I don't actually buy any processed food anymore but when I did I could never buy the really cheap stuff. There are some things you can get away with buying like own brand bleach, toilet cleaner even washing powder. but if you are going to buy processed foods you have to buy the best you can afford or stock up when they're on offer