Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Store wars
SPIRALISED vegetables, miso burgers and insane packaging – the aisles of our supermarkets have changed a lot in the last few years. There are bizarre items we’ve never even heard of, and if we took the time to read every unfathomable nutritional label, the weekly food shop would probably take around three days. This series has seen Masterchef ’s Gregg Wallace and journalist Babita Sharma lift the lid on how supermarkets use the latest science and innovation to bring us our favourite foods. There’s an all-out supermarket war as Brits spend £180billion a year on groceries, and we are no longer loyal to one chain. Cheat on Tesco to bag a bargain in Aldi? Absolutely. In this episode, Gregg and Babita look at the biggest supermarket battleground of all – our health. “This is big business,” says Gregg. “Almost three-quarters of us will pay more for food if we think it will be better for us.” But as the supermarkets cash in, are we just being duped by manipulative food labels? Babita gets the lowdown on all the latest tactics. Meanwhile, Gregg discovers how one supermarket is using miso to reduce salt in burgers and heads to Germany to find out whether a new alcohol-free wine could still taste good – we’re guessing not. And elsewhere, Babita investigates the ever-expanding world of ‘free-from’ products, while Gregg discovers what it takes to produce of one of the skinniest sausages in Britain.