Brand ‘Snobbery’?

Yes I think you have to pick and choose, but if on a budget you don’t have that choice. I object to unnecessary fillers like cellulose added to foods to bulk them out and lower the cost. As a rule of thumb the more ingredients on the label the less fresh ingredients, and more heavily processed.

Own and branded good do not neccesarily, have the same recipe, even if produced in the same factory. Each supermarket chain will have developed its own recipe to try to copy the taste of the leading brand but use cheaper materials, so they can price them for less.

Oxtail soup, for example will probably have less meat and be bulked out with more vegetables, shortcake biscuits will have less butter. Although DeeJaysmum does illustrate that when you get to basics like weetabix, there is very little difference

Mummer

Tough stringy beand- you're overcooking them/not cooking enough/a rubbish cook.......

Is it necessary to be quite so rude?

Looking for DF food items for DGG, I have found a lot of cheaper foods mayo, garlic bread etc are actually dairy free too as not loaded with butter. And hence much cheaper than special dairy free ranges!?

With drugs, take a look at the back of the box, there's a number in a little box, which in a great many cases will be the same number whether you're looking at a big brand or a cheaper generic. That number is basically a 'recipe' number, so if two different brands have the same number, they've both been made according to that 'recipe'.

I saw something on TV a few months ago about this kind of thing, in particular wheat bisks. When they compared the big brand with the Asda own brand the difference was that the Asda bisk had 0.01g less salt, the rest of the recipe was identical.

Someone mentioned the use buy life of cheese . I find if properly wrapped and refrigerated it will keep for months.

It’s true that drugs have a brand name and generic names for the same drug. Generic names can only be used when a drug comes off licence. That’s why drugs on prescription often change, according to which manufacturer is the cheapest, but they are essentially the same as the branded drug.
Food doesn’t have the same regulations and branded and non branded items would not have to be essentially the same.

My GP told me years ago not to pay out for Nurofen, she said that supermarket brands were exactly the same at a fraction of the cost.

BlueBalou

I worked in a dairy when I left school and before going to nursing, packing cartons of cream and yogurt.
It amused me that the same product went into different brands packaging with huge variations in price!
Hence going for own brands as much as possible because I refuse to pay extra for posh brands.

It depends on the product of course.

But fruit and vegetables can vary in quality even grown on the same farm.

Mummer

Tizliz

At a friend’s for dinner I praised the green beans because they are often tough and these were perfect - they were Tesco’s frozen!

Shock horruer!!! Really? Are you for real? Do you think there are special crops/factories/cows/etc set up specifically for 'own brand' products?! Ha haaaa! Never heard such a load of codswallop! It ALL comes out of the same place, a spur is a spud flour is flour(same mills) drinking choc is same, difference usually may be down to packaging advertising and the strongest difference of all- psychological influence! Taste test. Do it. See?

You don't know a lot about farming, obviously!

There are different grades of produce. They get graded as they are packed on the farm

Mummer

Tough stringy beand- you're overcooking them/not cooking enough/a rubbish cook.......

Tough stringy beans are old beans.

Anyone who grows beans knows that.

I worked in a dairy when I left school and before going to nursing, packing cartons of cream and yogurt.
It amused me that the same product went into different brands packaging with huge variations in price!
Hence going for own brands as much as possible because I refuse to pay extra for posh brands.

Fairy. Not dairy!

I haven't found a good substitute for dairy either.
There must be one!
Next best is morning fresh - cheap and cheerful.

Duvetdiva
I’m with you there, has to be Fairy

Nothing other than Fairy liquid for me. Supermarket brands just don’t compare and you need to use twice as much to get a lather

i buy supermarkets own brand and some value brands, only thing i won't change is my lurpak butter. i find that most own brand and a lot of the value ones are just as good and sometimes better.

I think aldi ketchup has far more tomatoes in it than Heinz, of I remember rightly.

I’m an ingredients reader and am not convinced that some own brands don’t use cheaper ingredients. Not all of course but a friend was extolling the taste some cheap supermarket own brand jam but on reading label it had far less fruit content than some more expensive jams.

Kim19. You say you have had success with hot chocolate, do you mind telling me which brand you now buy? I ask because I have a cup every night before bed and it's always Cadbury. I have tried quite a few other cheaper brands, Sainsbury's own brand, Asda's own, Lidl and a couple of others but have never found anything to match the taste of Cadbury, so your opinion would be very helpful.

Gave up on The Brand baked beans quite some time ago. Took to Branston and then after reading in the well known consumer magazine the results of tests eg quality, levels of additions like sugar changed to Asda. Much prefer the Asda too, more taste and thicker sauce.Much cheaper than the other two. Tinned chopped tomatoes is another one. Loads of own labels have only 60% content tomatoes. The Napolina range has 65% but is usually expensive in comparison to Aldi, now 38p and has 65% tomato. I am currently trying butter spread not manufactured in EU and imported. Quite a few made in UK that seem equally good and sometimes cheaper.

I but Asda's soap powder, cleaning stuff, toilet rolls, butter and cereals. The only things we buy that's branded are cat food (Purina) and baked beans (Branston)

Mummer my GC can tell the difference on a blind taste test on the following: Aldi cereal versus Kellogg and Nestlé (though Nestlé comes with a lecture from DGS) Lidl or Aldi versus Lurpack, any tomato soup versus Heinz and tomato and HP sauces versus any other brand. On the other hand they like Lidl hash browns better than Birds Eye and any brand of fresh food if I home cook it. FarmFoods always have such great discounts on branded cereals that the ones they like are cheaper than either Aldi or Lidl.
Drinking chocolate? Well I can tell the difference between the brand I like and others, but if you can’t, lucky you. You can go with the cheap stuff.

Mummer can you explain then why Birds Eye frozen peas don’t taste like any other frozen peas?