In the supermarket, should we opt for a branded product to eat well?
At a time when inflation is affecting the country, the magazine
Que Choisir
(1) wanted to know if first-price items were really less good for your health than their branded equivalents.
After carrying out a comparative study, our colleagues found that the economic versions were not always worse than their more expensive equivalents.
“No less recommendable” recipes
The magazine of the French Consumers' Union has thus compared the labels of twelve food categories, such as biscuits, mayonnaise, jams, brioches or even frozen pizzas.
To do this, two criteria were taken into account: the Nutri-Score (the amount of saturated fatty acids, sugar, salt, fibre) and undesirable industrial ingredients, including the presence or absence of additives.
Taste, a more subjective criterion, was not taken into account.
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Race results?
“In two-thirds of the families of foodstuffs evaluated, at least one first-price item has a recipe no less recommendable” than that of items from major brands.
Lidl
lasagna
is thus “scrupulously identical to that of
Marie
” , notes the French Union of consumers.
No wonder, they come from the same factory!”.
Some budget products are even better than branded ones.
This is the case, for example, of the Lidl brioche at 2.90 euros, which obtains a better rating than that of the Harrys brand, at 4.23 euros.
The best option is to cook raw products
These results do not mean that "
low-cost
products are of good quality", say the authors, but they do reveal that "mid-range brands are not beyond reproach".
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If it is therefore possible to spend less, without "necessarily degrading the nutritional quality", the magazine recalls however that none of these "first price products is labeled organic or "without pesticide residue"".
And insists: “cooking raw or minimally processed foods at home” remains the best way to reconcile budget and health.
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(1) The entire
UFC Que Choisir
survey can be found in the November issue, currently on newsstands.