Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

Harry_McGarry

Phillip21 wrote:

I was interested in the posting about the visit to the factory making Tesco o/b plain chocolate. I have been buying it in bulk for some years because I have some for breakfast each day. I buy it because, until recently, it offered 50% cocoa solids at a very reasonable price (around 50p for 200g). The Sainsburys' Basics equivalent did not match this on spec. On my most recent visit to Tesco, I noted that the cocoa solids content had been reduced to around 40% - os I guess they may have changed their supplier. I should be interested to hear of any other good o/b chocolate with a high cocoa solids content, and not too sweet, and any information on manufacture etc.

Phillip

Mmm, chocolate for breakfast every day .... My other half is a pastry chef (and very fussy/snobby about brands!). We did a taste test of dark chocolate a while ago and Morrisons Bettabuy Plain Chocolate @ 25p per 100g came out the best! It has minimum 50% cocoa solids and we always use that now in his desserts.

hollydays

BANKER wrote:

Most corned beef is canned in either Brazil or Argentina. It is labelled at source and the own label products are invariably supplied by the major brands.The own label product is the same quality as the brand.

My brother said that when they make corned beef virtually the whole cow goes into a machine and comes out the other end in a can (not 1 cow in a can though!)Nothing is wasted.PS Fray Bentos is atown in Uraguay

mew

Slightly off topic but does anyone know of another supermarket/brand that sells the same filtered milk as Tesco's 'Pure Filtered Milk' (£1.05 for 2 litres). I've tried Cravendale which is more expensive but unless I got a dodgy batch, it doesn't taste as nice. Obviously as I like the Tesco Milk, I do try to buy it when I can but stock at my local Tescos is very hit and miss.

wardy_ac

I used to work for a afrozen cake manufacturer. we made them for all the big supermarkets, except waitrose and M&S! THe difference between say tesco value and coop finest was down to how much sugar was put into the mix compared to cream for a victoria sandwich.

Some of the food service (wholesalers) cakes that did 18 portions had the same recipies as the big sized tesco/asda/sainsbury/morrison/safeway cakes which sold for less in the supermarkets!!!

i can still tell which recipie is being used when i order fudge cakes in restaurants and which provider it is.

Sadly the company i worked for went bust in 2001 and was sold off to different major food manufacturers.

I do know though that Fletchers in Sheffield bake the muffins for Sainsbury and M&S. THe main difference between them is the time that it is allowed to take to get to store and the length of the date code. M&S only allow 3 days from manufacture where as JS allow up to 7 depending on ingredients - so if you want the freshest look at the dates

Ms._No_Name

I work for M&S so can happily confirm that Thorntons and Godiva supply a lot of their chocolates. As previously mentioned by others lots of companies supply M&S but the difference is M&S will have more expensive ingredients (for example they were the first large UK Co. to ensure all eggs used were free range etc, they've reduced the amount of Salt, eradicated Hydrogenated fats in the products etc). Don't assume that just because the same supplier makes the goods for different supermarkets that you're getting the same product, it won't always be the case.

One other thing as a student (many years ago!) I spent a horrible summer working in a fruit packaging factory. Different supermarkets had different standards. We could only put in Class 1A fruit for M&S & Sainsburys. Any visible marks or bruises HAD to be removed, Tesco would have all the remaining crap (for want of a better word). A lot of the time it was fruit that was just about on the turn. I also worked at the Tesco cheese factory for a couple of weeks during that summer. It put me off buying food from them for life. You get what you pay for!

froggy

I used to buy Triumph Doreen bras which cost around £22. I now buy M&S Total support which are virtually the same, made by Triumph and a lot cheaper-£16 the last time I looked. I found out when I went to a Triumph factory shop and recognised some of the bras as M&S due to the colour. The assistant confirmed this.

jamesOMGthatsbig

I used to work for a food manufacturer called palethorpes, (northern foods), making pies, pork pies, quiches, pasties and sausage rolls for asda, sainsburys, pork farms and M&S. All the pastry that is used was the same ie: M&S spec the only real difference is the spices in the gravy/sauce and meat.

jamesOMGthatsbig

I'm working for grampian country food group making processed chicken and turkey for tesco, asda, sainsbury and iceland. The iceland meat is the best quality and it's made with fresh UK meat. tesco get their turkey from bernard mathews in hungary but don't tell anyone.

melg1973

hollydays wrote:

My brother said that when they make corned beef virtually the whole cow goes into a machine and comes out the other end in a can (not 1 cow in a can though!)Nothing is wasted.PS Fray Bentos is atown in Uraguay

:eek: might not do corned beef hash for tea now.....:eek:

blackste

hi all
i used to work for mcvities in manchester and the different brand name are made from different ingredients. mixes change from customer to customer, based on what they specify, and price they pay. i also worked for typhoo tea, who do a lot of own brand stuff, and this was the same. the really cheap stuff like happy shopper and kwik save was virtually dust, whereas the own brand is top quality tea leaves. i currently work for kelloggs, who make no own brand produce, never have, and probably never will. its not always worth the hassle to companies.
the only non brand stuff i would recommend is over the counter drugs. i have also worked in pharmaceuticals for a big generic drug maker, and the is little or no difference between them and brands names. except price.