Organic food in supermarkets

bornintoit

RedLass wrote: »

By the way, what is irradiated food and why would they need to do that??? :eek: It sounds frightening. I'll have to google this I think.

This has alot of information including what food groups are allowed to be irradiated in the UK etc.

http://www.food.gov.uk/policy-advice/irradfoodqa/#.UMcWJqwrv8k

Edwardia

Thanks frugal_shopper I didn't know that either ! I buy my eggs from Abel & Cole and there's a video of the chickens on their website.

I live in a fairly small town and although we have ASDA, Sainsbury's and Lidl in the town centre, another Sainsbury's on the outskirts plus Tesco and Waitrose a bus ride away, I didn't find much organic food. Hence switching to online shopping for most of it.

I'd suggest that the first thing to do when considering going organic whether wholly or partially, is to do a recce in all the supermarkets you can get to easily. Have a look at what they have and the prices, and compare it with other supermarkets either in-store or using mysupermarket.co.uk

If you have farmers' markets locally you could have a look round there too. A word of caution... you'll find that there will be farmers and smallholders who farm organically but claim they can't afford to get certified (have no idea what it costs myself). However, there's nothing to stop unscrupulous people turning up with a few nice signs and photos and offloading non-organic imported meat either.

I have seen non-organic meat sold in my local market which people are keen to buy because it's cheap - and at the end of the day when the unrefrigerated van has gone, the pile of boxes left behind clearly showed that the meat originated from Eastern Europe.

Waitrose does free delivery on all orders over £50. Ocado does some free slots very early morning or late at night. Sainsbury's does free delivery on orders over £100 midweek. I believe ASDA does free delivery on orders over £100 too ?

Minimum order for Sainsbury's is £25 but incurs delivery charge up to 6.95 whereas orders over £40 mean lower delivery charges.

Ocado delivery prices are horrendous and a weekly Saturday morning order would cost nearly £400 a year to deliver. However, a Delivery Pass does save a huge amount of money on regular orders.

Tesco does a Delivery Pass too but have to say I don't use Tesco much and never for online orders now so I can't give more details.

The plus point about using online delivery is that generally the deliveries are made from bigger stores which carry more organic food.

Another thing to consider is a delivery service like Abel & Cole, Farmaround or Riverford. You might find others locally too.
www.abelandcole.co.uk
www.farmaround.co.uk
www.riverford.co.uk

Another option for store cupboard organic food is mail order from places like Planet Organic www.planetorganic.com or Approved Food www.approvedfood.co.uk

Holland & Barrett has some organic food too in stores or online www.hollandandbarrett.com orders over £20 free delivery

Finding organic eggs, milk, baked beans, olive oil and pasta isn't too difficult. Finding fresh meat, poultry, bread, fruit and veg can be.

Edwardia

RedLass wrote: »

I didn't expect to find it cheaper to buy organic than branded :shocked:

Cathedral City cheese £4.38 / 350g at Tesco
Mature Cheddar £3.99 / 360g at Abel & Cole

I feel a little hum of excitement bubbling up. Better not tell anybody at work though, they'll think me terribly sad! Many already give me "that look" when I tell them I try to stick to organic meat.

This is why I have been buying Cheddar from Abel & Cole for some months now and I did mention this on MSE some months ago on a thread on cheese. I think it's better Cheddar than Cathedral City as well !

vincenta

Just had my Abel and Cole delivery.I ordered Whole Earth organic tasty chocolate bears for my little one.They are great, sweet enough, chocolaty and my son loved them!:j
Looks like I need to bake less or use recipes with less eggs, for example to make biscuits I need only one egg:beer:
By the way I love Riverfor lemons, they are so juicy and not so expenisve. 6 lemons cost 2.09 £ As I use lemons in my tea, lemon zest in cooking I like them to be organic and organic lemons are more juicy than average one.
Riverfor clementines and oranges are delicious too, fragrance is so strong if compare with shop bought ones and they taste better, but price of course is higher than in shops.

Edwardia

vincenta you're tempting me with Riverford lemons but they don't deliver here

frugal_shopper_2

Kirri wrote: »

It's not allowed though so how can they be classed as organic?? Any links??

Article 42 of Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 recognises that organic table chicks and laying pullets are not available in sufficient quantities and allows non-organic three day old chicks for meat or eggs to be brought in when organic ones are not available.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32008R0889:en:NOT
when a flock is constituted for the first time, renewed or reconstituted and organically reared poultry are not available in sufficient numbers, non-organically reared poultry may be brought into an organic poultry production unit, provided that the pullets for the production of eggs and poultry for meat production are less than three days old;

Defra have postponed the ban on beak trimming until 2016 meaning infra red beak trimming is still widely carried out on 2 day old chicks.
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/laying_hens/ban_on_beak_trimming_postponed.aspx

The combination of these 2 factors means that organic farmers can purchase pullets that were beak trimmed when they were 2 days old but then go on to raise them to organic standards as set out in Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. The soil association is the only governing body which completely prohibits beak trimming unless it is for emergency medical reasons & will not permit farmers to use this loophole to purchase pullets which are already beak trimmed.

Kirri

Thank you Frugal, interesting reading!


Edwardia, agree on the markets thing though a lot of the London based ones have to agree to certain conditions of standards in order to sell ie miles from market etc. Also no idea on conversion to organic standards costs but some places are in conversion and that takes a while I believe. I wouldn't touch any standard market stall and the odd ones that crop up in places if buying meat.

I fancy trying some of the Riverford citrus now, it's hard to get org citrus in supermarkets so I do buy non org for citrus and bananas (don't eat enough bananas to warrant buying a whole bunch though Morrisons did do them, not sure if they still do?).

RedLass, interesting cheese prices - I think people get so used to the supermarkets they are always perceived as being the cheapest. I was surprised at Goodness Direct, more health than org stuff but some of the prices are lower or same as supermarkets.

Did someone mention Moo organic uht milk, edwardia maybe?? It was on offer in Asda today if so, 2 for £1.50, no idea if that has been posted on here, can't keep up!

I saw the NY org vine fruits in H&B this morning too, they have a buy one get one half price offer on at the moment.

Edwardia

ASDA Chosen By You Fair Trade organic teabags 80 1.83
Higher Living Best of British organic kosher teabags 20 1.88, ASDA
Clipper organic white teabags 40 1.48, ASDA
Clipper organic Earl Grey teabags 100 3.48, ASDA

OFFER: Twinings organic Earl Grey teabags 50 was 3.38 now £2 to 02/01/13, Tesco
Clipper organic everyday teabags 160 4.65, Tesco
Clipper organic green teabags 25 1.45, Tesco
OFFER: Clipper organic teabags 80 was 2.55 now £2 to 02/01/13, Tesco
Clipper organic white teabags 25 1.29, Tesco
Pukka organic Fair Trade green teabags 20 2.19, Tesco
Tesco organic teabags 80 £2

Sainsbury's SO organic Fair Trade teabags 80, 2.01
OFFER: Clipper organic everyday teabags 80 was 2.55 now £2 to 01/01/13, Sainsbury's
Clipper organic everyday teabags 160 4.65, Sainsbury's
Clipper organic decaffeinated teabags 40 2.49, Sainsbury's
Clipper organic white teabags 20 1.29, Sainsbury's
Clipper organic Fair Trade loose leaf tea 125g 1.99, Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's SO organic Fair Trade loose tea 125g 1.50

Duchy Originals from Waitrose organic green teabags 20 1.09
Duchy Originals from Waitrose organic Earl Grey tea 125g 1.79
Duchy Originals from Waitrose organic English Breakfast tea 125g 1.79
OFFER: Clipper organic white teabags 26 was 1.29 now 96p to 02/01/13, Waitrose
Clipper organic decaffeinated teabags 40 2.49, Waitrose
OFFER: Clipper organic everyday teabags 160 was 4.65 now 3.72 to 02/01/13, Waitrose
Clipper organic everyday teabags 80 2.55, Waitrose
Clipper organic decaffeinated teabags 80 4.99, Waitrose
Twinings organic blend teabags 80 3.79, Waitrose
Twinings organic Earl Grey teabags 50 3.38, Waitrose
Dragonfly organic cup in a sleeve green tea sachets 20 2.09, Waitrose

Clipper organic everyday teabags 160 4.65, Abel & Cole
Clipper organic Fair Trade Earl Grey teabags 50 2.19, Abel & Cole
Clipper organic green teabags 25 1.45, Abel & Cole
Clipper organic everyday decaffeinated teabags 40 2.50, Abel & Cole

Twinings organic blend 80 3.79, Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic everyday teabags 80 was 2.55 now 2.04 to 02/01/13 Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic everyday teabags 160 was 4.65 now 3.72 to 02/01/13 Ocado
OFFER: Clipper decaffeinated everyday teabags 80 was 4.99 now 3.99 to 02/01/13 Ocado
OFFER: Clipper decaffeinated everyday teabags 40 was 2.49 now 1.99 to 02/01/13, Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic everyday loose tea 250g was 2.65 now 2.12 to 02/01/12 Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic Earl Grey teabags 50 was 2.40 now 1.40 to 02/01/13
Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic Fair Trade teabags 80 was 3.29 now 2.63 to 02/01/13 Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic Assam teabags 50 was 2.29 now 1.83 to 02/01/13 Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic Fair Trade English Breakfast teabags 40 was 2.40 now 1.92, Ocado
OFFER: Twinings organic Fair Trade Breakfast teabags 80 4.29, Ocado
OFFER: Twinings Classics organic English Breakfast teabags 50 4.09, Ocado
OFFER: Clipper organic green teabags 25 was1.45 now 1.16, Ocado
Numi organic Fair Trade Breakfast tea 16 3.49, Ocado

frugal_shopper_2

Edwardia wrote: »

If you have farmers' markets locally you could have a look round there too. A word of caution... you'll find that there will be farmers and smallholders who farm organically but claim they can't afford to get certified (have no idea what it costs myself).

Costs vary according to which organic certification body people apply to, there are 10 options. It also depends on what you produce, where you produce it, where you store it prior to sale etc...
Cheapest option would be about £500 per year for the certificate but you then get bombarded with numerous fees & have to pay a percentage of your profits to the certifying body too which adds up incredibly fast. None of the quotes I ever had when I was growing fruit & veg would of been affordable as the fees alone added up to more than the annual profits.

Edwardia

Kirri I drink Moo organic UHT milk and I know the offer is on but my local ASDA doesn't stock Moo milk :mad:

frugal thanks for that, very informative. I'm hoping the eggs I buy from Abel & Cole come from chicks that aren't beak-trimmed as the video shows them from one day old (so cute).

Ocado has 4 Waitrose organic oranges for 1.99, 600g Waitrose organic easy peel citrus for 1.99 and 3 organic Waitrose lemons for 1.49

OFFER: Tesco organic oranges minimum 3 pack 1.50 now any 2 for 2.50 save 50p to 16/12/12
OFFER: Tesco organic oranges minimum 3 pack 1.50 now any 2 for 2.50 save 50p to 16/12/12

Strangely, though I'm not logged in, Waitrose website isn't showing any organic citrus fruits..

ASDA organic lemons 4 1.87 but no oranges..

Sainsbury's SO organic unwaxed lemons 4 1.50
Sainsbury's SO organic oranges 5 1.90