For the Love of British Food

On a special edition of BBC TV’s Money programme, TV food guru Greg Wallace took a close look at how the recession is affecting the nation’s food shopping.

The topics he introduced included what the supermarkets are doing to keep us shopping with them, the struggle for independent shops to continue trading, and the trend towards value ranges and away from higher priced branded foods and organics.

To help illustrate the trends, he introduced Nina, a mother of two young children with their own decided preferences for certain foods.

Nina normally shops online with Tesco for convenience. She was asked to do a week’s shopping still online with Tesco, but shopping entirely from their value ranges, another week shopping in independent outlets in her local town centre and yet another buying as much frozen food.

There were comments from managers of Sainsburys, Iceland and the Co-op, plus some independent food suppliers including an organic farmer who is also a spokesman for the Soil Association.

Greg Wallace asked him about the possibility of changing the message about organic food to concentrate on just one aspect rather than a range of benefits but the Soil Association’s representative was very clear that they would not be doing that. He said that organic food directly benefited the environment in which it was produced, indirectly through lower energy usage which had less impact on climate change, it led to better animal welfare standards and the food was healthier for the consumer because there were no pesticides or artificial fertilisers used in  vegetable and fruit production and no potentially harmful residues in animal products of medications used on livestock.

Nina’s family were happy with some cheaper items and hardly noticed the difference with certain things like a value-range tomato ketchup, but she said that some value items - were such poor quality she could not give them to her children and had had to throw them out uneaten, so that was not a saving.

She said that she had enjoyed the shopping experience in the independent local shops but it hadn’t been convenient or very quick and she had to do her weekly shop in two parts to be able to carry home heavy bags. She did say that the fruit and veg particularly were excellent quality that week.

The Co-op manager highlighted that in spite of the recession, the sales of fairly traded food had actually increased and that it need not be more expensive. Top UK chocolate brand Cadbury’s Dairy Milk will be made from fair-trade cocoa from this summer at no extra cost.

The programme also looked at the value supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl, but found that many people who gave them a try when they first opened,  have reverted to their normal supermarket because they can’t get the branded foods their family likes, particularly things like breakfast cereals and biscuits.

I’ve tried my local Aldi and found some good bargains, particularly for ‘deli’ items like cold meats, bacon, ready-made salads and also for household goods.

One thing that did not come out very clearly, except that people are eating out less, is whether the British public are actually watching all the celebrity chef shows that we have on TV and making more of an effort to cook meals from scratch. You don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen and you can save time and money by cooking several things together to re-heat or eat cold later in the week. Read some of my other blog posts for suggestions.

In the supermarkets, the shelves are as full as ever of every kind of fresh chilled complete meals and short cuts like cook-in sauces. What has been a shock for some people, and perhaps is having an effect is that people are trying not to waste so much food and only buy what they know they will eat.

For myself, I still really look forward to my fortnightly organic veg box, although I might be a bit more careful to choose things that I know I will eat before they go off, or find ways to cook and save them.

The taste is just so much better and it is probably fresher than supermarket produce too, as some of it comes from a farm only a few miles away near Winchester.

I almost stopped eating out when I split with my husband in 2006, although occasionally I get a mystery shop assignment which gives me a free meal, albeit not always in the sort of places I would have chosen before.  I would rather save money by cutting down on evenings out and drinking and not buying treats like clothes, magazines, books and CD’s than reduce the quality of what I eat. 

I’m quite proud of the fact that I’ve bought 3 pairs of jeans recently on ebay for less than the price of one pair in my favourite chain store and that included the postage costs. And I’m not too snotty to wear charity shop clothes either.

I’m going to cheaper shops like Wilkinsons and Aldi for household items like laundry detergent, toilet rolls and personal toiletries even though it is less convenient. The fact that I walked across town to Superdrug rather than paid Waitrose prices for shower gel, shampoo and toothpaste is good for my health as well as my pocket and they still stock my favourite brands.

By virtue of the fact that one of my local post offices is now located there (in Emsworth, Hampshire), I’ve been doing rather more shopping in the Co-op in the last year and I do appreciate their dedication to fair trade and the quality of fresh food is excellent.

In a later BBC radio bulletin this evening, I heard that a local health authority in the North of England was ‘bribing’ smokers to give up by offering them vouchers for free food. Well done them - teach them how to cook it properly too and it will be an even better and more successful idea.

If you are in the UK., you can catch this program on Iplayer for the next couple of weeks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lk4cd#synopsis

At home I have continued to try to economise by using what I have in the fridge and freezer and buying as little as possible other than basics like bread and milk. I’ve done quite well at that, and have used up quite a lot. I will need to tidy and pack any spare space with something like bags of polystyrene packing chips or blocks. This will make sure I use as little energy as possible.

To top up, I am looking for cheap seasonal and tasty. Winter is a good time to eat pork and I have bought some pork belly which is an inexpensive cut and can be cooked in many different tasty ways. A Chinese cookbook might be a good place to start, but I’ll think about that later. The quantity I bought will make two meals for about £2.50 a meal including veg. I have plenty of root veg in stock and I bought a savoy cabbage for fresh greenery. You would be hard put to find a good ready-meal at that price and you would not get much for your money.

Channel 4 TV featured two families who were trying to economise. One family looked to supermarket value ranges, the other family shopped around, went to local butchers and markets. They both saved money, but there is no doubt in my mind who had the healthiest diet.

The Riverford fruit and veg box still has some treats in store, one being a fresh pineapple. I’ll really enjoy that just as it is, but might chunk and caramelise a few pieces to go with a dessert of rice cooked in coconut milk, another storecupboard gift.

I have plenty of pasta, so tomorrow night’s supper might be based on that and I have all the ingredients for a full Sunday breakfast partly thanks to Waitrose generosity. The assistant on the checkout opened the box of eggs I was buying and found two cracked. The store didn’t have any more that size which were on special offer, so gave me half a dozen of extra-large at the same price.  They are usually regarded as being at the top end of the price ladder for supermarkets, but they are trying hard, they have special offers on food and household items to match Tesco and Sainsbury and are SO much more friendly.

They are also helping the community. When you pay, however little you may have bought, you are given a small green disk. That goes into one of 3 bins at the front of the store and at the end of each month, a charity contribution is assigned to 3 different local causes proportionate to the number of disks in each bin. Customers can also suggest local charities to benefit and I am hoping to see RYA Sailability feature sometime soon - we have a group at our sailing club with specially adapted boats and trimarans. The boats include a landing craft type that can take wheelchairs, and Challenger trimarans that can be controlled by hand and foot pedals and can’t capsize.

Sorry, diverted a bit from the food topic there, but it is good to see a big supermarket chain wanting to get involved like this.

I’m not sure what to do about my growing plans. I know I’ll be putting the house on the market, but don’t want too many big and heavy containers to move if I am out before the summer. I know I want to try to take a cutting from the bay tree to take to a new abode.  I will be checking my River Cottage diary later to see what I should be planting in February. It may still be winter, but there are signs of spring in the garden, even now and jobs I am hoping for a respite from rain and stormy winds to get on with.

I was in Dorchester yesterday - I managed to set myself up 3 mystery shopping assignments in the area and the combined fees made my hour and a half journey worthwhile. I also looked forward to it as a bit of an escape. Oddly enough, when I checked my horoscope on my igoogle page in the morning, it was exactly what I was prescribed.

I left late morning, which was good as apparently it was lethally icy earlier on. It was a nice bright winter’s day and it’s a pleasant drive after you get off the M27/A27. I wondered if I might find something to blog about food-wise and was working on the idea of foods that Dorset was well known for. I’ve already mentioned apple cake, so that was out. Dorset Blue Vinny cheese was one possible avenue and I thought I might find a cheese shop in Dorchester after my assignments were done. (more…)