Organic food in supermarkets

System

Abel & Cole is simply way too expensive

Edwardia

Hi there berbastrike !

Re Abel & Cole.. £10 minimum order, 99p delivery charge..

Abel & Cole organic mature Cheddar cheese 360g at 3.99 is cheaper than Cathedral City 350g (currently on offer £3 but normally 4.38 everywhere)

Abel & Cole 2 litres fresh organic semi skimmed milk 1.92 as opposed to Moo organic UHT semi skimmed milk £1 per litre, Tesco etc.

So not necessarily everything is more expensive..but yes ASDA, Lidl and Morrisons generally don't stock enough organic food and although Aldi does own brand organic in Germany (cheaper than non organic here !) and USA, it doesn't do it here.

System

VERY FEW of their items are a decent price. The soups for example are £2.99 for 600g. You can get 600g of fresh non organic soup in Tesco for £1. The ready meals were also around £4.

I just can't afford that money. I would rather pay half the price and wash off the pesticides if any are remaining.


I have found there organic beans with no added sugar:
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=2640

Edwardia

berbastrike, if you feel happy to buy non-organic food, then that's your choice.

Most people don't buy it, but as the quality of food decreases and the prevalence of chemicals and genetically modified food increases then more people will buy organic.. Hopefully, there will come a tipping point when the price will come down as it has in Germany and USA.

In Sweden the government is pro GM food, but Swedish consumers aren't and consumer pressure led to all the supermarkets promising not to allow GM in any own brands.

In the most recent NOP poll in the UK 89% of UK consumers were against GM. But our supermarkets don't seem to be taking any notice

So for you and anyone else reading this who feels that they can't afford organic food but does worry about pesticides and chemicals..

http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/969076_Veggi_Wash_Fruit_Too_Fruit___Vegetable_Wash_Concentrate_500ml.html

http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/dirty-dozen-foods#slide-1

Couldn't get Holland & Barrett website to work but cheapest organic baked beans I know of are ASDA 410g 64p..scratch that.. Sainsbury's 420g 57p

Edwardia

https://www.organicdeliverycompany.co.uk

Spotted this by chance, free delivery on orders over 13.95

frugal_shopper_2

There are some huge variations in prices from one company to another so shopping around is essential if buying online.
To give an example a 200g block of organic oak smoked cheddar has a £5.01 difference between these 2 companies, thats 83.5% more expensive for an identical product.
http://www.organicdeliverycompany.co.uk/dairy-eggs/cheese/godminster-oaksmoked-cheddar-200g.html
http://www.naturalgrocery.co.uk/Fresh/fresh-dairy/Godminster-Oak-Smoked-Cheddar-Organic

Edwardia

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=4918&prodid=5892

This stuff s currently 1/3rd off at Holland and Barrett but it's normally more expensive than 100% natural unsweetened Hershey's cocoa imported from USA and it's carbier than that too. :eek:

frugal_shopper I agree that shopping around is still essential, maybe even more so ! I trawl through offers on supermarket websites for things like organic olive oil and tinned tomatoes.

The price of Heinz organic cream of tomato soup varies between 96p at Tesco and 1.15 at ASDA though organic Weetabix is 2.48 at ASDA, 2.69 Sainsbury's and 2.99 Tesco. Heinz organic baked beans are 75p at Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado, 85p at ASDA and Sainsbury's. Green Giant organic tinned sweetcorn 198g is 70p ASDA, 89p Waitrose, Ocado, Sainsbury's.

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=4918&prodid=5892

This stuff s currently 1/3rd off at Holland and Barrett but it's normally more expensive than 100% natural unsweetened Hershey's cocoa imported from USA and it's carbier than that too. :eek:

I just picked up Green & Black's last time, never even looked at it for price, carbs etc must admit!

Edwardia

Carrying on with this theme, prompted by frugal_shopper:T thanks and welcome, btw..4 unwaxed organic lemons cost 1.50 in Sainsbury's (non-offer) and 1.87 in ASDA :eek:

I do check prices, for example, in November/early December both Ocado and Abel & Cole had Lye Cross Farms organic cheeses on special offer, but different ones so I got the offer ones as appropriate.

Weirdly, though it has virtually no fresh organic food, my local ASDA does stock organic baked beans, ketchup, soup, olive oil and stock cubes but not Moo milk

System

Edwardia wrote: »

berbastrike, if you feel happy to buy non-organic food, then that's your choice.

Most people don't buy it, but as the quality of food decreases and the prevalence of chemicals and genetically modified food increases then more people will buy organic.. Hopefully, there will come a tipping point when the price will come down as it has in Germany and USA.

Edwardia I agree that I think the prices will come down.
Organic milk I always buy, and organic eggs too.

But for things like soups as I mentioned, the veggies used will be machine washed removing pesticides and then any pesticides that do remain will be destroyed by cooking the soup. This is why I can't see the real benefit in paying an extra £2 for organic soup.

Organic meat and dairy, I think this is where the big benefits are as like you say the animals are being fed GM feed which imo is wrong. Plus non organic cows are injected with hormones and other substances.

Fortunately the UK doesn't sell GM produce like the USA though - it would not really surprise me if we did started selling it though, just the way companies operate these days - all about profit.

For things like oranges and fruits where you don't eat the skin, again I can't see the benefit in buying organic for much more money, because the skin contains the pesticides and these are removed before eating.

I do buy organic carrots, milk and eggs and a few other things that are not much more expensive than non organic. Everything else I struggle to cope with the price tag.