As people tighten their belts more are shopping at discount grocers. Scary that Spam and Kool-Aid report increases in sales these days.

The article below is from England but it points out that many of these bargain foods really aren't a bargain at all. Time to shop and read labels even more carefully.

Professor Tom Sanders, head of nutritional sciences at King’s College London, said: “This is cheap, second-rate food ingredients masquerading as real food. They are heavily processed foods using added fat, water and sugar. People tempted by the low prices should look carefully at the labels.”

At Sainsbury’s, the Basics range is now a vital plank in the supermarket’s strategy. Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said earlier this month that a 25% increase in sales of Basics products had boosted half-year profits to £272m.

He was less expansive, however, about the quality of the budget range. Four chicken and vegetable pies, for example, cost 84p but contain only 9% chicken and 2% vegetables.

The back of the packet shows that there are 44 ingredients. The main ones are wheat flour, water and margarine along with additives such as maize starch, emulsifiers, glucose syrup and colourings.

Sainsbury’s chocolate mousse costs 28p but contains only 2% chocolate. The main ingredients are milk, sugar and cream. The main ingredient in Basics tinned curry, at 48p, is water; chicken is 12%.

At Tesco, the Value range is almost identical in terms of price and ingredients. Both supermarkets sell processed cheese slices that cost 51p but contain only 11% cheese. The main ingredient is whey powder, a byproduct of cheese making, followed by vegetable oil, milk proteins and emulsifying salts.

At Tesco, a 700g pack of frozen sausage rolls costs 65p but contains 6% pork. The main ingredient is water followed by wheat flour and vegetable oil, with added pork fat, salt and emulsifiers.

The Tesco Value 300g fisherman’s pie is 75p, almost £2 cheaper than the standard 500g fish pie, but contains almost two thirds less fish at just 9%. The main ingredients are mashed potato and water with added fish stock and gelling agents such as pectin. A tin of Tesco Value chicken curry costs 48p but is only 12% chicken.

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, said: “It’s about consumer expectations. You would expect a fisherman’s pie, for example, to be mostly fish. If it contains mostly potato with 9% fish then it should be called potato pie with a bit of fish.”

The Basic and Value budget ranges are cheaper than food in the discount stores. But Aldi and Lidl’s food is often cheaper than the standard ranges in Tesco and Sainsbury’s – and a second survey found that it was often better quality, too.

Sainsbury’s own brand marmalade, for example, costs 75p and has 26g fruit per 100g. At Lidl, however, the orange marmalade has 5% more fruit and costs 55p.

In Tesco, 500g of pasta sauce contains 56% tomato and 9% puree and costs 79p. In Lidl, a similar jar of pasta sauce costs 67p and contains 72% tomato.

Tesco’s bramley apple pies cost 69p and have 15% apple. Aldi’s Holly Lane bramley apple pies cost the same amount but contain 45% apple.

Sainsbury’s wafer-thin cooked ham costs £2.38 for 400g while 450g of Tesco wafer-thin honey-roast ham costs £2.98. Both contain 80% pork. At Lidl, by contrast, 400g of wafer-thin ham contains 97% pork and costs £2.19.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s cream of tomato soup both cost 39p and contain 68% and 74% tomato puree respectively. Aldi tomato soup costs 37p but contains 91% tomato puree.

Sarah Dennis, a senior researcher at Which?, the consumer group, said: “The snobbery value has gone from it. People are more aware you can get just as good if not better products at the discount retailers.”

Claudine Spiteri, a 30-year-old mother, lives in east London and runs a corporate entertainment company called Livestock Productions. She discovered Lidl two years ago and now prefers shopping there to her local Waitrose and Tesco.

She said: “They’ve got a great range of continental food and I find the quality of the meat is better.”

Sarah Finn, a 45-year-old mother and church employee from east London, shops in Lidl for her fruit and vegetables and goes to Sainsbury’s and Tesco for luxury items.

She said: “I noticed that the fruits and vegetables last longer and Lidl have good offers. I still haven’t tried their tins yet, though - I’m still unsure about those.”

A spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s said that its meat was ethically sourced and of high quality. She said: “Product integrity is at the heart of all our ranges - from premium to value - thereby offering customers the highest quality food at fair prices.”

Tesco said it had recently started discounting branded items to compete with Aldi and Lidl on price and content.

I buy cereal at Big Lots for half the price.I still can't figure out why if gas prices have come down why food prices are still in the stratosphere since they blamed it on gas prices.

I've been asking that very same thing.

What I buy is mostly fresh veggies and meat, then cook extra, put it in the freezer (along with other leftovers) then make soup or stew a couple times a week.

Mmmmmmm....GOOD...

If any sort of extender is needed to make it go farther, I can then add whatever is needed, but I am in control that way.

In the midwest, we had all those storms in the spring. A lot of crop damage occured. This is part of the reason chicken costs twice as much as it did last winter. Beef prices are up, but pork prices have remained steady. I haven't bought chicken since mid summer. I'm eating a lot more pork that ever before.

Oddly enough, the wild salmon prices seems to be cheaper than ever. If you buy it frozen. Fresh still costs an arm and a leg. I'm eating more salmon now, too. But had to stop eating shrimp. That's gone up a lot too.

Does anyone remember when Generic first hit the shelves. White lables..I remember generic beer.. White can that said Beer..

I buy a lot of generic. There are only a few things that I like a particular brand an anything else tastes wrong. But for most things, there is no difference.

Im talking in the 70s when Generic brands first hit the market. There are all kinds now..I just thought it was funny

Its really just the same thing. It's just that stores decided to slap their own labels on them and the name got changed to 'store brands'.

The food on the shelves now was produced this past growing season when oil was high, so the investment was already made in it. It takes a while for the drop in oil to effect food.

Of course this delay dosn't seem to work in our favor when prices rise.

I don't get it. Spam is around $3 for 12 ounces. If I want meat I might as well get the real thing at that price.

Ahhhhh Spam does any food evoke such emotion & controversy?

I always some on hand. Last time I bought some it was 3.00 for a 2 pack at WalMart. That was 6 months ago I guess.

No it's not always the same. The 'generic' brand slaps additives and junk that is not needed to keep the price low, in turn making the food unhealthy for consumers.

You have to read labels some generics are good, & some brand names are crap.

Read the label of a loaf of whitebread, then look up a homemade bread recipe it's mind boggleing. I suggest everyone invest in a breadmachine.

I need to stay off of those other threads . We would not eat half of what we do if we knew what was in it and how it was prepared..