Pre packaged v loose fruit and veg

JimmyTheWig

floss2 wrote: »

I have always thought that pre-packed fruit & veg in any supermarket or store is more expensive than loose......they have to pay for the packaging & the packers (whether people or machines) on top of the fruit.

What about potatoes? The 2.5kg bags of white potatoes knock the socks off anything loose in terms of value.

JimmyTheWig

katieowl wrote: »

I always weigh the 'per item' stuff like cabbages, to make sure I get the heaviest one!

I've had some strange looks, and have actually had people tell me that they are priced individually. When I told them what I was doing they were amazed...cos they'd never thought about it.

I swear one day I'll get banned from Sainsbury's LOL!

Good for you, though not sure I'd bother doing this - just go for the one that looked / felt biggest.

But what I have done in the past is weighed a pre-packed bag of apples to compare them to the loose price.
Because although they give a price per weight (in whatever units!) for the packaged stuff, it can't be particularly accurate. They can't put, for example, five and a half apples in a bag. So once I've found what looks to me the biggest I've weighed it to see if it's good value or not.

Lesley_Gaye

mute_posting wrote: »

ERM...

That is the standard way of working it out,

6g of fat in a item weighing 100g = 6% fat (end of!)

Why do you think the Nutritional Information is given per 100g or per 100ml? (and then sometimes calculated per serving if space permits) - For a start it allows people to quickly compare.

To put it another way, 6g in 100g or 24g in a 400g serving is STILL 6% fat content.



MP

you're quite right, the guidelines per serving are there so that people can quickly compare. But I'm afraid that 6g of fat per 100g does not equate to 6% fat.

the reason I worked it out is that I have always understood that the % of fat we need to eat in our diet is total energy intake.

Carbs and protein are 4 cals per gram, fat is 9 per gram.

So if an item has 6g of fat per 100g, you need to know how many calories that is.

In the 3 examples below, each food is 6g of fat per 100g, but each one has a different calorie content per 100g

So for instance, if an item had 200 calories per 100g, the sum would be
200 calories per 100g, 6g of fat per 100g.

6g of fat x 9 cals per g = 54 calories
54 calories of fat / 200 total calories = 27%, not 6%
27% of the total calories of the food are fat calories

if the item was fewer calories per 100g say 150, the sum would be
150 calories per 100g, 6g of fat per 100g.
6g of fat x 9 cals per g = 54 calories
54 calories of fat / 150 total calories = 36%
36% of the total calories of the food are fat calories

and if there were more calories per 100g, eg 350, the sum would be
350 calories per 100g, 6g of fat per 100g.
6g of fat x 9 cals per g = 54 calories
54 calories of fat / 350 total calories = 15%
15% of the total calories of the food are fat calories

Apologies for all the numbers, but I'm sure this is right. What does anyone else think?

JimmyTheWig

"% of calories from fat" and "% fat" are two different things.

I presume, Lesley, that you are on a specialist diet and you therefore need different information from the rest of us.
It is not just ready meals that use the terminology you found, all packaged food does.

gunsandbanjos

Was in Somerfield today, they had a bag of 3 onions for a pound, or loose onions. There was absolutely no way of comparing the price of them, it was quite a small shop with no scales. So i bought 3 loose ones just out of interest to see how much they were... 57p:D Nearly half the price of the ones in a net
Thye supermarkets are so devious, they dont like to make it easy to compare things:rolleyes:

mute_posting

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

But I'm afraid that 6g of fat per 100g does not equate to 6% fat.

percent = per hundred (latin I think?)

6g per 100g = 6% (be it fat, carbs or protein)

As others have said your diet is obviously interested in % of CALORIES from fat (which arguably can be a very useful measure as something can be low fat but still high calorie, i.e sugary items like jam = 0% fat) not pure % fat.

At the end of the day it is the calories that are the important bit as these are the measure of energy. You could easily get all your calorific needs from a diet of 100% fat or 100% sugar - although I wouldn't suggest either is a good option:eek:

MP

Lesley_Gaye

mute_posting wrote: »

percent = per hundred (latin I think?)

6g per 100g = 6% (be it fat, carbs or protein)

As others have said your diet is obviously interested in % of CALORIES from fat (which arguably can be a very useful measure as something can be low fat but still high calorie, i.e sugary items like jam = 0% fat) not pure % fat.

At the end of the day it is the calories that are the important bit as these are the measure of energy. You could easily get all your calorific needs from a diet of 100% fat or 100% sugar - although I wouldn't suggest either is a good option:eek:

MP

no - ha ha - 100% doughnuts would be nice for a day or two, but I wouldn't feel very well!

Yes, I am interested in the fat in calorie terms. 6g per 100g is 6g in weight terms only, and not the total of the fat you would eat. I still think it is misleading, but the consesus here seems to be that people are happy with the way it is currently done.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi, there! I'm going to add this to the existing thread comparing prepackaged and loose fruit and veg

Penny. x

lil_me

I always go off price per kilo, I will avoid paying for extra plastic wherever I can and will gladdly visit the local F&V shop getting everything but soft red fruits thrown into one bag.

Bungarm2001

On the 'mysupermarket' website, the same bag of apples is pictured like this. As you can see, there are more than 5 apples there. If I had ordered these online, and received a bag with only 5 in it, I would have been straight on the phone. I noticed today that Tesco's website is now showing this particular item as 'unavailable' I don't know about anyone else but to me, this picture is a misrepresentation of the product and definitely designed to mislead. Sorry to keep on about it, but as far as I am concerned, this is the thin end of the wedge. I'm going right to the top with this...never mind my local stores customer 'care'