Lidl food is it REALLY this bad! 531

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:42:52 +0000, Owain

It also varies considerably more than the non-value own labels or brands. One week value stuff can be good or better than normal, the next it's quite poor, but here's some I've found acceptable (at least in terms of taste):

Oven chips (bit thin but still just potato and veg oil) Peanut butter (fine but uses palm oil) Canned fruit (hardly spectacular but nothing wrong with it) Bags of potatoes (odd sizes and turn fast but otherwise fine) Plain crisps (bit frazzled) Porridge Oats (bit dusty but we can't tell the difference) Rice pudding (not so creamy but healthier) Digestive biscuits (can't tell the difference) Vanilla ice cream (as good as standard IME) Savoury Rices (as as as standard IME) Nuts (can't tell any difference) Golden Syrup (ditto) Jams-Lemon Curd (not overly fruity but don't use much anyway) Frozen Peas (variable but generally good)

Some that I've found vile:

Rice crispies (reformed from rice powder and absolutely inedible) Bread (unless feeding to birds, and maybe for toast) Shaving foam (worse than using soap) Washing up liquid (there's a reason it's 10x cheaper than even basic OL) Noodles (cheap, filling, smell nice but like eating wallpaper paste) Chocolate (basic OL brand is actually *cheaper* per 100g)

Sometimes Value items are less healthy than normal (eg peanut butter and some others tend to be full of palm oil, or hydrogenated veg oil), whilst others are more healthy (eg Asda value rice pudding has less calories, less fat and less saturated fat per can, simply by having a slightly higher water content, and value crisps have a lower salt content and better mono-sat fat ratio). And watch out for value brands that are more expensive than normal Own Label (eg chocolate).

Mostly Value brands seem to be cheap, minimal packaging, and misfits (odd shaped potatoes, slightly dusty oats, crisps a little too frazzled etc) which is fine, but one has to look out for the plain rip-offs or disgusting, sugar-filled, fatty crap. They certainly help out when money's tight, but there are some I'd still use all the time.

Frink

-- Doctor J. Frink : 'Rampant Ribald Ringtail' Annoy his mind here : pjf at cmp dot liv dot ack dot ook "No sir, I didn't like it!" - Mr Horse