The True Cost of Cheap Food?

jinny

No suprizes for me either, I will continue to buy value stuff anyway because I have no choice due to lack of money, I cook from scratch with value stuff and it usually tastes fine. I will never buy Mr M's value mince again mind it was disgusting I threw it out after finding lots of grizzle and what must have been the connective tissue that they were on about in the program.

pebbles88

does anyone have the link to this for 4OD?? i missed it!

tinksy

i saw it to! i wasnt really that shocked apart from at their food budgets!! we have so far spent around £50 for the month of january on food for two tho we are admitedly eating out of the freezer. we used to spend around £150-200 a month on food shopping but are now working on cutting that down thanks to this site and my slow cooker!!

Essex-girl_2

I missed the programme sadly.

I dont buy value meat but one thing occured to me - my Nans generation used to eat every bit of meat of an animal so there was no waste - Hugh Fernley Wittinstal (sp) advocates this as well - my Nan loved Brawn which I assumed was full of the rather unpleasant bits. So my point is, if there is chopped up unmentionables in pies/sausages etc - is that wrong?

huston_kw

Just my 2 cents on the tomato bit

The value was based on per tomato, and most know that the value range of F&V is the norm stuff that isn't cosmetically pleasing to the eye or the "wrong" shape or size (crazy) - anyway the tomatoes on the value tend to be smaller hence less lycopene, just to say that the lycopene in tomatoes increase if you cook them - but to me a tomato is a tomato is a tomato end of.

This program was quit interesting but rather one sided, I wonder how much luxury food items the present would eat if he lived alone and on the dole? I don't think he'd be that picky about the % of X in X, I think he'd care more that he could actually eat something. Arrgghhhhh Rant over!

hotcookie101

I thought the nutritional bit on the tomatoes was lycopene per 100g of tomatoes not per tomato? But I may have been wrong

Penelope_Penguin

I was out last night, so have this recorded to watch later

I'll add this to the existing thread that we have on this programme.

Penny. x

nesssie1702

Dispatches sometimes isn't the most balanced of programmes on the telly and I've taken some previous "food" topics that they've covered with a pinch of salt - but I've got a food background - Food Science, Nutrition, Food Safety and a fair knowledge of what's been spoken about.

The programme that was on last night isn't the worst one I've seen, but it didn't really leave me satisfied that the topic was covered in a rational manner either.

Some of the factors that they analysed made me think - why did they choose that nutrient over others? Did they do a full analysis of the products and then choose to home in on the ones that were most "sensational"

The presenter, Jay Rayner, is Claire Rayner's (agony aunt) son! I wonder if he's ever been told that he looks like his mum?!

NoahsPennilessMummy

the tomato thing shocked me a bit really as I thought there was no difference in value F&V. I wouldnt like to think value F&V was less nutritious

I kept thinking how much he looked like his mum too:rotfl: esp around the eyes and the same mannerisms.

RHYSDAD

We watched the show last night and really no surprises for us. We still shook our heads at the original budgets the families were spending each week! £150??? Mad....
Anyway, it doesn't take a genius to work out that cheap food is going to equal lower quality but, as pointed out earlier in the thread, a 'finest' chocolate sundae from Tesco had an ingredients label reminiscent of a chemistry lab experiment and therefore a premium product is in no way ensuring a much better quality. choclate moussse should contain: chocolate, egg whites, sugar and cream. Why do Tesco then produce theirs with about a 100 ingredients for the same thing? Madness.
Anyway BOT, we shop at Sainsbury's and we buy the basics tinned toms, kidney beans, flour, butter and sometimes the rich tea biscuits but that's it. We buy all our meat from our butcher (who is a family friend), we've yet to find our local farm shop but always buy sacks of potatoes direct from a farmer customer of ours. We have our own chickens so our own eggs and we are getting into foraging. Last Autumn i picked about 5lb blackberries which we then froze and they lasted until the end of December. We have a large mature apple tree in the back garden so plenty of pies, apple sauce from that. I make nearly all food from scratch, pastry so pies, tarts etc, plenty of fruit crumbles. Meat pies (again from the butcher). This time of year we are getting through lots of stews, soups etc so a little goes a long way.
make nearly all my own bread, which the kids love, homemade chicken nuggets, fish goujons etc. Make all my own cakes, bread pudding.

We do buy a very small amount of basics items to eat but things like bleach, j-cloths etc are ALL basic. Not buying the premium stuff to clean the loo!!!