Do you look at the ingredients of products you buy and does it influence your shopping decisions?

Mnoee

Yes, I do look and it sometimes influences my shopping.

An option for tiny labels is looking it up online. Not great in shops like aldi, but if it's a supermarket with home delivery like Tesco, they have ingredients and nutritional information online.

It's not ideal, especially if the shops have bad WiFi, but figured I'd mention it as an online shopper - that's the only way I can and do read the 'labels'! 

Murphybear

I never bothered much until recently when I was going to make a Victoria sponge for a friend but was short on time and bought one from a major supermarket.  The list of ingredients horrified me

INGREDIENTS: Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Vanilla Flavoured Buttercream (15%) [Sugar, Butter (Milk), Water, Humectant (Glycerol), Glucose Syrup, Cornflour, Maize Starch, Salt, Dried Egg White, Flavouring], Strawberry Jam (15%) [Sugar, Strawberry Purée, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid, Trisodium Citrate), Flavouring, Colour (Anthocyanins)], Pasteurised Egg, Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Whole Milk, Pasteurised Egg White, Humectant (Glycerol), Butter (Milk), Glucose Syrup, Cornflour, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Potassium Carbonate), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Palm Oil.

Allergy Information

May contain soya and peanuts and nuts. The allergens in this product have changed., For allergens, including cereals containing gluten, see ingredients in bold.

My home made version has butter, sugar, flour, eggs, a drop of milk and vanilla extract.  I will know better next time 

thriftytracey

Yes, I do look and it sometimes influences my shopping.

I don't buy anything with palm oil in the list of ingredients. Nasty and not palm oil plantations depriving animals of habitat.

robatwork

Yes, I do look and it often influences my shopping.

You'd enjoy Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken.
Fairly fascinating, and will turn most occasional label checkers slightly more paranoid. 

LightFlare

One word - NO

jon81uk

Murphybear said:

I never bothered much until recently when I was going to make a Victoria sponge for a friend but was short on time and bought one from a major supermarket.  The list of ingredients horrified me

INGREDIENTS: Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Vanilla Flavoured Buttercream (15%) [Sugar, Butter (Milk), Water, Humectant (Glycerol), Glucose Syrup, Cornflour, Maize Starch, Salt, Dried Egg White, Flavouring], Strawberry Jam (15%) [Sugar, Strawberry Purée, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid, Trisodium Citrate), Flavouring, Colour (Anthocyanins)], Pasteurised Egg, Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Whole Milk, Pasteurised Egg White, Humectant (Glycerol), Butter (Milk), Glucose Syrup, Cornflour, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Potassium Carbonate), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Palm Oil.

Allergy Information

May contain soya and peanuts and nuts. The allergens in this product have changed., For allergens, including cereals containing gluten, see ingredients in bold.

My home made version has butter, sugar, flour, eggs, a drop of milk and vanilla extract.  I will know better next time 

Do you not add the strawberry jam? Do you make your own jam or buy one?

horsewithnoname

Yes, I do look and it often influences my shopping.

If it reads like a chemistry lesson, I won’t eat it. Who knows what all that crap does to you? I like my food to be food. 

Also if a product of anywhere that I choose to boycott I can choose an alternative. 

TripleH

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Yeap, Twiglets now have palm oil in them so won't be buying those any more, I only buy chocolate that doesn't have palm oil in it as well.

I also don't want to eat anything with sweetener in it, I'd rather have the sugar and just eat less. Sweetener is excessively sweet, whilst it may not make you fat, your brain still has a similar stimulation resulting in it becoming accustomed to a heightened level of sweetness.

Aim is to eventually stop eating anything with oil in it but that pretty much means not eating anything processed, which won't be a bad thing.

I'm the same with peanut butter. I have no issue having to mix the oil in with the nuts to avoid palm oil.

pulliptears

Yes, I do look and it often influences my shopping.

Aspartame allergy.  I'm very wary of 'New Recipe!' flashes on products as it often means sugar has been reduced and sweetener added so I read labels religiously  now.

username

Yes, I do look and it sometimes influences my shopping.

pulliptears said:

Aspartame allergy.  I'm very wary of 'New Recipe!' flashes on products as it often means sugar has been reduced and sweetener added so I read labels religiously  now.

I have no allergies but I can see why you've got to be on the ball if you do.

From your point on being slightly cynical on 'new'/'new recipe' flashes it also usually means there's been a bit of sneaky shrink/skimpflation in order to disguise the fact the product is reformulated but not necessarily for the better.

The other slightly interesting usage of this 'new' sticker on a product is with Asda. I noticed there was a 'new' standard 20% fat beef mince on the shelf and bought it, but I thought it was a bit strange why there was a 'new' sticker on it since the item is a staple in most of the supermarkets.

By chance I had an old label for a Asda Just Essentials beef mince shoved in a draw from the time when there was uncertainty of where you could recycle plastic film - it turns out the 'new' standard 20% beef mince is what used to be the JE product, but with a different label! Everything on the label copy wise is literally the same apart from the artwork on the design, and of course, the increased price, with it not being the value range.

In summary: the current JE product is 25% fat so the quality has decreased slightly, and the 'standard' 20% fat product is what the old formulation of the previous JE product was.