Sainsbury's economy products: review

arfabrane

my chef friend told me that the main difference with value beans, spaghetti etc is that they are GM foods.

Absolute rubbish - I know - I work in the lab of the cannery that makes beans etc for Sainsbury (and Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons/Safeway, Aldi, Co-op etc etc etc.) This biggest difference between premium and value is the sauce - there is much more tomato paste in premium packs. The beans themselves may also be a lower quality (if we have received beans deemed only good enough for value packs) but most of the time the beans are identical.

Bear this in mind when buying, for example, carrots - the only difference between premium and value is the amount of salt in the brine - less salt in the economy packs. Oh, and the carrots aren't as carefully graded for size - big deal

crana9

i had one of the economy low fat peach yoghurts the other day (still have a strawberry one to go).

they aren't too good... but at the same time.. they are only 8p.

Austin_Allegro_2

Yes, the yoghurts seem to be mostly cornstarch - though that's not necessarily a problem, as things like angel delight are mostly made of potato flour.

The economy choc ices are quite good - the chocolate is that low cocoa 'fake' chocolate (which I think tastes quite nice) and the ice cream is bog standard vanilla, but they only cost about 7p each or something.

The fish fingers are pretty horrible - the breadcrumb coating is thin and oily and the 'fish' (if indeed that is what it is...) tastes like papier mache.

hornblower

Although I'm a student, I usually but brand-name produce. However, when it comes to generic produce, I keep an eye out for bargains. This is all the economy stuf I've tried:

Strawberry Jelly - 16p - very good, cannot tell the difference between this and Rowntrees which is double the price. I buy this regularly.

Sliced white bread - 23p - thinly sliced and texture like cardboard. Only good for toast.

Apple juice - not bad, slightly sweeter than normal juice. I'm going to buy this more often.