Supermarket Cartels Treating Customers With Contempt

knspol

I did notice the lack of unsalted butter but there seemed to be plenty of salted around.
Did not know butter was so easy to make shame I sent my food mixer to the charity shop recently!

There was some unsalted butter here but no salted.

I fancy having a go at making butter now that Sago has revealed the secrets. As for free-range chicken, has anyone actually seen thousands free range chickens running about in UK?
I was informed quite some time ago that free range is basically the chickens now have some room to move about in the massive sheds whereas before they were penned in to small spaces. Organic is the same for living conditions but are likely to be fed organic material hence more expensive.

Free range means that hens have access to outside for a part of the day.
Obviously, when bird flu was around, this was not possible.

Barn reared should be labelled as such.

Allira is right, free range means free range and if you have not seen any 4allweknow that is because chicken farms are not aways visible from the road. However I buy my chickens from a free range chicken farm and I can see the chickens all digging around in the large grass area that surrounds their shed. I also know of several other free range farms in my area, but I live in a rural area and have lived here nearly 30 years.

Granmarderby10

I just can not get on with cups measurements🫤

There are plenty of websites that will convert them to metric or lbs & ozs.

I had a go at making butter yesterday. 300mls of double cream weighed 11oz. It made just over 6 oz butter, but I haven't got all the buttermilk out of it so it could be a bit less.
So, it seems to me that you get roughly half the original weight of the cream as butter. The rest must be the buttermilk, which is usable for cooking.

Is it cost effective? Perhaps not but it's interesting to do and worth knowing about. Fun to do with grandchildren.

Granmarderby10

I just can not get on with cups measurements🫤

Granmardyerby10 I’ve got this. It’s cup sized as you can probably see by the markings.
It has the Kellogg logo on the bottom so is probably quite ancient. I found it while clearing out my in-laws house.

I think poverty partly contributes to malnourishment because some of the cheapest food is junk. Also, an awful lot of people don't seem to know the first thing about preparing food from scratch. "Too much effort! I don't have the time!" But it takes half an hour at most to prepare a nourishing daily dinner from scratch. Since the advent of everything easy, ready-made or fast, the skills of cooking and keeping house have gone down the pan. If real Home Economics was taught in schools as a core subject, today's children might stand a chance of growing up with at least a basic knowledge of how to eat well AND cheaply.

@NonGrannyMoll has put it extremely well, and I agree totally with her.

A question:

Why does butter keep longer than cream? Presumably because it has a higher fat content, but if you used cream which was just on its use by date, would that keep for a while or not?

In the UK malnutrition is mostly found in the over 65s and under 5s www.nhs.uk/conditions/malnutrition/

One in ten over 65s are estimated to be malnourished. One third of older people admitted to hospital are malnourished.

The causes are threefold, 1) existing medical conditions that cause loss of appetite, nausea or difficulty digesting some foods 2) physical problems like disability or dental problems that make food difficult to prepare and eat and 3) social risk, like loneliness, low income, lack of cooking skills. www.malnutritiontaskforce.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/State%20of%20the%20Nation%202020%20F%20revise.pdf

The main reasons for children under 5 being malnourished is because they are born into chaotic and, often, poor homes, with poor parenting practices and abuse.

Allira

A question:

Why does butter keep longer than cream? Presumably because it has a higher fat content, but if you used cream which was just on its use by date, would that keep for a while or not?

Yes, up to date cream lasts longer as butter.

I have cream in my fridge with a “use by” date of 19 December. It’s perfectly fine.

I have made butter with some of it - which is also perfectly fine 😁

If you try the small corner shops, there is plenty of butter, cream and yogurt. There is competition between supermarkets but not between corner shops.

Sago

Allira

A question:

Why does butter keep longer than cream? Presumably because it has a higher fat content, but if you used cream which was just on its use by date, would that keep for a while or not?

Yes, up to date cream lasts longer as butter.

Thank you.

karmalady

The price hike was necessary. Supermarkets are not charities and farmers need to be paid as do the butter makers

Make your own

Indeed.

Allira

knspol

I did notice the lack of unsalted butter but there seemed to be plenty of salted around.
Did not know butter was so easy to make shame I sent my food mixer to the charity shop recently!

There was some unsalted butter here but no salted.

We should have swapped!

Going off piste a bit on this but why is it when you get clubcard price offers, after the offer is finished, it never goes back to the original price, it’s always more eg. Cheddars normal price £1.20, clubcard offer £1.10, offer now finished, cheddars now £1.50. It makes me stock up when things are on offer as you know when they come back they will be more expensive.

knspol

Allira

knspol

I did notice the lack of unsalted butter but there seemed to be plenty of salted around.
Did not know butter was so easy to make shame I sent my food mixer to the charity shop recently!

There was some unsalted butter here but no salted.

We should have swapped!

Yes

Met halfway for coffee and mince pies 😁
(Unless you're in John O'Groats!)

Foxyferret

Going off piste a bit on this but why is it when you get clubcard price offers, after the offer is finished, it never goes back to the original price, it’s always more eg. Cheddars normal price £1.20, clubcard offer £1.10, offer now finished, cheddars now £1.50. It makes me stock up when things are on offer as you know when they come back they will be more expensive.

Do you remember when there used to be a lot of shortages, some deliberate I think?
One was toilet rolls and the price went up considerably when they became widely available again.

Wasn't this done yesterday?

Yesterday was a different country 😁

Totally agree our supermarkets are far too powerful:
The way they treat farmers
The rubbish they import
We have the worst quality produce in Europe
We should have more farmers/ normal markets as in continental Europe giving us local produce

he UK used to have lots of markets, but many have closed down because people stopped going to them preferring to buy everything in the supermarket.

The same thing is happening in France. When we bought our house in Normandy in 1991, there were thriving large markets in all the local towns. Not only large vegetable and fruit stalls, bakers etc , but an area set aside for local small holders, normally retirees, selling the surplus from their vegetable gardens, a chair, a small table and 3 bunches of rhubarb, 2 bunches of flowers, a few lettuces, and madam would be there knitting baby clothes - also for sale.

By the time we sold our house last year, these markets had shrunk dramatically, the ladies with their bits and bobs are long gone as are most of the local vegetablea nd food stalls. The markets were much smaller and mainly selling cheap clothing and tourist tat.

Tourists love markets, but they are there a couple of markets one year and are never seen again. The locals find it easier to do all their food shopping in Leclerc.

mum2three

If you try the small corner shops, there is plenty of butter, cream and yogurt. There is competition between supermarkets but not between corner shops.

There may well be one supermarket chain less by this time next year: ASDA is reported to have had a disaster of a Christmas while the other big names did fairly well.
It's being run by the Spiv Brothers these days and everything about my local branch screams "Failing!"

Spiv brothers have sold it off.