Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

Arlandria606

I'm reliably informed by a Waitrose employee that Essential Waitrose milk and butter is the same as Country Life, just differently branded.

250g of salted butter costs 18p more for the Country Life brand, though. Maybe its the shiny packet?

happybunny86

I'm sure this has been pointed out at some point in this thread but to be honest this thread is arbitrary.
I work in the grocery market and there are very few factories which are big enough to make everyday products for supermarkets and the big brands. Therefore there are often made in the same factories due to economies of scale. They are however made from ingredients and recipes which vary on a very large scale. Just because they are made in the same factory / by the same company does not mean the quality is the same. For example Arla make anchor with milk from New Zealand. They also make lurpak with Danish milk. Go with what you like the taste of best

Li0nhead

One thing i have noticed recently is to keep an eye on is the codes of products in supermarkets with meat in it.

For an example take the tin of Bacon Grill from Lidl in my cupboard. It has the code of: "DK 65 EF" on it.

A quick google shows that this code is for Tulip foods in Denmark. Tulip foods in the UK has the following brands:


Adams
Alf Turner
Danepak
Spam
Stagg Chilli
Plumrose
The fuller Flavoured Sausage co
Tulip

That says to me Lidls own brand Bacon Grill comes from the same place as the above brands. Thats not to say it is the same product or ingredients but gives us an idea of where its come out of.

The otherday i did a check of some other products when in Sainsburys. From memory the Frozen ribs had the same code as the brand beside it, Basic and normal corned beef had the same code from Brazil as did the brand beside it (cannot remember which). The tinned beans and sausages had the same code as branston's and the Soups with meat in was the same code as one of the other brands (not Heinzs but cannot remember which of the other ones on display it matched may have been Baxters but not 100%)

As i say it could mean nothing but makes you wonder...

terra_ferma

Li0nhead wrote: »

One thing i have noticed recently is to keep an eye on is the codes of products in supermarkets with meat in it.

For an example take the tin of Bacon Grill from Lidl in my cupboard. It has the code of: "DK 65 EF" on it.

A quick google shows that this code is for Tulip foods in Denmark. Tulip foods in the UK has the following brands:


Adams
Alf Turner
Danepak
Spam
Stagg Chilli
Plumrose
The fuller Flavoured Sausage co
Tulip

That says to me Lidls own brand Bacon Grill comes from the same place as the above brands. Thats not to say it is the same product or ingredients but gives us an idea of where its come out of.

The otherday i did a check of some other products when in Sainsburys. From memory the Frozen ribs had the same code as the brand beside it, Basic and normal corned beef had the same code from Brazil as did the brand beside it (cannot remember which). The tinned beans and sausages had the same code as branston's and the Soups with meat in was the same code as one of the other brands (not Heinzs but cannot remember which of the other ones on display it matched may have been Baxters but not 100%)

As i say it could mean nothing but makes you wonder...

Great detective work. I'll be doing the same from now on

Li0nhead

Li0nhead wrote: »

One thing i have noticed recently is to keep an eye on is the codes of products in supermarkets with meat in it.

For an example take the tin of Bacon Grill from Lidl in my cupboard. It has the code of: "DK 65 EF" on it.

A quick google shows that this code is for Tulip foods in Denmark. Tulip foods in the UK has the following brands:


Adams
Alf Turner
Danepak
Spam
Stagg Chilli
Plumrose
The fuller Flavoured Sausage co
Tulip

That says to me Lidls own brand Bacon Grill comes from the same place as the above brands. Thats not to say it is the same product or ingredients but gives us an idea of where its come out of.

The otherday i did a check of some other products when in Sainsburys. From memory the Frozen ribs had the same code as the brand beside it, Basic and normal corned beef had the same code from Brazil as did the brand beside it (cannot remember which). The tinned beans and sausages had the same code as branston's and the Soups with meat in was the same code as one of the other brands (not Heinzs but cannot remember which of the other ones on display it matched may have been Baxters but not 100%)

As i say it could mean nothing but makes you wonder...

Just done a bit of research on these codes and found this explains them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EC_identification_and_health_marks

dentification marks and health marks are the oval-shaped markings found on food products of animal origin in the European Community, required by European Union food safety regulations. It identifies the processing establishment that produced and packaged the product and that is therefore responsible for its hygiene status. These marks are meant as a monitoring and tracking aid for food safety and customs inspectors, and each food processing facility dealing with food products of animal origin is required to keep records of its trading partners and their approval numbers (in the case they process said food products), both for buying and selling. The identification and health marks are not an indication for the specific origin of a particular piece of food by themselves, as they do not encode the location of the farm that provided the initial raw product or livestock. However, consumers could use them to identify the actual manufacturer behind supermarket store brand products, where the labeling deliberately lacks any information about the real producer, which could be one that otherwise produces high-quality products using its regular brandings.

hmmmm..... Think I may have just found the Holy Grail of disguised brands.....

happybunny86

Li0nhead wrote: »

Just done a bit of research on these codes and found this explains them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EC_identification_and_health_marks

hmmmm..... Think I may have just found the Holy Grail of disguised brands.....

"The identification and health marks are not an indication for the specific origin of a particular piece of food by themselves, as they do not encode the location of the farm that provided the initial raw product or livestock."

Just means its made n the same factory. Most likely different ingredients, different recipe, different area of the factory. This is was most evident in the horse meat scandal as not all the same products by all supermarkets were affected, even though they were produced by the same companies as the raw ingrediens source was different. Granted lots of supermarkets still withdrew product as it had been made in the same factory as another supermarket who was contaminated to avoid risk.

Arlandria606

Is anyone else thinking that Dispatches should do an episode on this, looking at (say) one factory making own-brand Lasagne for 5 different supermarkets, with different ingredients, the chance of them being mis-packaged, and (say) factories putting the exact same food into different packaging which is then sold at a different price? I think that'd be fascinating.

will2save

My Mum used to work for Tetrosyl - affectionately called "tets" as everybody in the borough worked there lol (it's a company that make car care products)


One role she did was filling the anti-freeze spray cans and she filled 3 different branded bottles - Car Plans brand, a generic brand and Halfords brand.


She filled all 3 versions of the bottles, with the SAME nozzle!!! And this was also on the same production line, so the ingredients in the line feed were not changed inbetween - so the exact same product was going into all bottles.


I suppose people don't pay much attention to anti-freeze though, as you just want your windows clear and get into the car


This may have changed now though, as this was in the late eighties. I also suppose products like this aren't even manufactured in the UK anymore.

will2save

will2save wrote: »

My Mum used to work for Tetrosyl - affectionately called "tets" as everybody in the borough worked there lol (it's a company that make car care products)


One role she did was filling the anti-freeze spray cans and she filled 3 different branded bottles - Car Plans brand, a generic brand and Halfords brand.


She filled all 3 versions of the bottles, with the SAME nozzle!!! And this was also on the same production line, so the ingredients in the line feed were not changed inbetween - so the exact same product was going into all bottles.


I suppose people don't pay much attention to anti-freeze though, as you just want your windows clear and get into the car


This may have changed now though, as this was in the late eighties. I also suppose products like this aren't even manufactured in the UK anymore.

Actually just checked, Tetrosyl are still going and still where they have always been. It's also the company that make T-Cut.

[Deleted User]

Li0nhead wrote: »

Tulip foods in the UK has the following brands:


Adams
Alf Turner
Danepak
Spam
Stagg Chilli
Plumrose
The fuller Flavoured Sausage co
Tulip

You couldn't fail to notice when Tulip took over the franchise for Stagg Chilli, the taste went from excellent to revolting.