I'm a terrible stickybeak at the supermarket. I love looking at what others are buying and find myself glancing into trolleys, checking out the range of foods, the brands chosen, the type of fruit and vegetables and whether the owner has succumbed to a chocolate bar while waiting in the checkout queue. It's a professional curiosity, a mini straw-poll on what people are eating every time I go to the supermarket.

Aside from the food, one thing which always strikes me is the quantity and variety of packaging in each persons' trolley. There are bags and boxes, cartons, cans, tetra-packs, and in some shopping trolleys every single item is packaged in some way.

Some packaging is obviously necessary, after all you can't hold milk in your fingers, while with other foods we don't have a choice about the packaging, that's how they're sold. However when it comes to fruit and vegetables I'm often flummoxed by the amount of packaging.

 

While the trend is changing, much of the fresh produce is in the supermarket is sold loose and yet I see many people who put each different type of fruit and vegetable they buy into its own, separate plastic bag. I can understand why you would put small, soft fruit like cherries or grapes into a plastic bag, you don't want them rolling around your trolley, falling between the bars or getting squished by a tin of tomatoes. I can even understand why you would want messy vegetables, like potatoes, to go in a bag, but what about the rest? 

 

 

 

After talking about the over use of words like 'fresh' and 'home made' on food labels I spotted this piece on Ecosalon about the word 'artisan'. As Anna Brones points out "Slap 'artisan' on something and you’ll immediately draw a crowd."

 

It's a great piece to read, both funny and insightful. Anna asks why words like 'fresh', 'home made' and 'artisan' are so alluring to us. Each of them is a marketing term, used to encourage us to buy more. They set up an expectation or image for the food in our minds, but why are they so successful?

 

 

The full piece by Anna Brones of Foodie Underground is on Ecosalon.

 

Ever wondered how a food product, on the shelf in a supermarket can be either "fresh" or "home-made"? How something which is manufactured and packaged, with a six month sell-by date, can be called "fresh"?

 

And why is a food which is made by machinery in a factory labeled as "home-made"?

 

Along with "pure", "gourmet" and "premium", these are marketing terms. They are used to imply the food is of high quality and that it is better, more natural and tasty than any of the competitors.

 

These words set up an expectation about the quality of that product and how it's been made. However, they are hazy terms, with no concrete or real definition and certainly no legal definition. They may also be used to describe products which are virtually the same as other brands on the supermarket shelf.

 

Try to ignore the "fresh", "natural" and "home made" claims and instead use my three quick tips for comparing food labels and make your own decisions.

There's a great piece by Joanna Blythman on the ingredients used in shop bought Christmas foods. If, like me, you've ever looked at the ingredients list on a packet of mince pies or other Christmas goodies and wondered at the label, Joanna's piece offers some explanation.  As she says:

 

 

I know there are good suppliers out there and people making high quality Christmas foods for sale to the public, however, her findings would be true for most mass produced products and foods found at the supermarket.  Joanna writes in the UK, so not all of it applies here, but there are enough cross overs to make it interesting reading. The full article is here.