Are any own brands as good as the real thing?

Our quality test reveals all

REMEMBER when own-label products were the poor man’s choice: inferior products that were bought for reasons of economy only? Well, times have moved on.

Sales of own-label food and drink have soared from £40.6 billion in 2009 to £48.3 billion last year, according to Mintel, who analyse our shopping habits. And the figure is expected to rise again to £49.7 billion this year.

A whopping 85 per cent of us buy own-label food and non-alcoholic drinks. And not just because we have to. Supermarkets have poured millions into creating own-label ranges, with the result that the quality has soared.

The Essential Waitrose range may be the butt of jokes on social media (‘Pass me some Essential hummus, Tarquin’), but it is a billion pound range with around 2,000 products. Sales are rocketing — up 5.6 per cent year on year, outperforming the market.

The same is true at Asda, where half of the average weekly shop is spent on own-label products. Kathleen Palmer, Asda’s senior brand manager says: ‘The boost in sales of own-label food is a reflection of the increasing quality and value of supermarket brands. The bottom line is that we can’t resist a bargain, especially now that it’s not at the expense of quality or variety.’

As with shopping at discount supermarkets, buying selected own label products is seen as the clever thing to do. In the past year, the number of those who bought own-label goods because they thought they were better than the brand name equivalent nearly doubled to 15 per cent, according to retail analysts.

And it doesn’t necessarily follow that the more expensive supermarkets have better own-label ranges than the cheaper ones. Lidl’s Deluxe range won Own Label Range Of The year at the Oracle Retail Week Awards last year.

So, which are the best own-brand labels? And are they better than the brand name originals?

I picked ten well-known branded products, from Heinz Baked Beans to Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, and tried the own-brand supermarket equivalent to see how they matched up on quality and price. I took the brand name price from middle-of-theroad supermarkets to compare.

Here’s my pick of the best own- brand products . . . and the ones to avoid.

HEINZ TOMATO KETCHUP

(570ml, £2, Tesco) BUyING anything other than Heinz ketchup has long been considered sacrilege — most schoolchildren grow up on it and develop a laser- sharp non-Heinz detector.

It certainly wouldn’t cross my mind to buy anything else. But I haven’t tried an alternative for years. Are they any good? I was genuinely astonished to discover that own-label ketchups were, mostly, really good.

BUY IT: Simply M&S Tomato Ketchup (515g, £1.20) was rich, tomatoey and delicious, as was By Sainsbury’s Tomato Ketchup (460g, £1). I also l i ked Aldi’s Bramwells Tomato Ketchup (500ml, 55p), which was thick, well-flavoured and a good price. Next time we run out, I’d definitely put one of these in my trolley.

DON’T BOTHER: Essential Waitrose Tomato Ketchup (470g, £1), with a vinegary tang, was my least favourite.

HELLMANN’S MAYONNAISE

(400g, £2, Sainsbury’s) IDEALLy, we’d all make our own, but most of us don’t have the time. So it’s shop bought, and for many of us that means Hellmann’s.

They get the consistency and creaminess just right, lifting everything from a ham sandwich to a juicy, dripping burger or an elegant poached salmon. My children are mayo-mad, so I enlisted their help to try them out.

BUY IT: Aldi’s Bramwell’s Real Mayonnaise (500ml, 70p) was judged the most like Hellmann’s and utterly delicious — my children were greedily spooning it out of the jar long after we’d judged our favourites.

Simply M&S Mayonnaise (413g, £1.10) was rich and indulgent, and the Tesco Mayonnaise (500ml, £1.15) was creamy and rather nice.

DON’T BOTHER: Lidl’s Kania Mayonnaise (500ml, 75p) had a slightly odd cheesy tang — we weren’t keen.

CHEESY WOTSITS

(6 x 19g, £1.50, Sainsbury’s) WE’RE addicted to these in our house – the children sneak packets when I’m cooking a late lunch and we have them with a drink once the children are in bed. According to retail analysts Him! Research & Consulting, crisps are one of the areas where shoppers are most loyal to brand names. Could I be persuaded away from my beloved Wotsits?

BUY IT: M&S Cheese Tasters (30g, 77p) are better than the real thing — fat, cheesey and very good indeed. I also loved the Aldi Snackrite Cheese Puffs (150g, 69p), which are all but indistinguishable from the real thing. Asda Cheesy Wiggles (6 x 21g, 85p) and Tesco Cheese Puffs Snacks (6 x 20g, 99p) were both very good, too.

DON’T BOTHER: The Essential Waitrose Cheese Puffs (100g, 77p) lacked the flavour of the real thing.

KELLOGG’S CRUNCHY NUT

(500g, £2.50, Sainsbury’s) FORMERLy known as Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, this is Britain’s second most popular cereal after Special K.

A sweet feast of nuts, honey and sugar on golden cornflakes, it is not for those who ‘quit sugar’. But those ads that said they were so good you can’t stop eating them weren’t far off the truth. Can any of the own-brand versions compete? yes, they can.

BUY IT: Essential Waitrose Honey Nut Corn Flakes (500g, £1.70) looked and tasted almost exactly like the real

thing — if you shop at Waitrose, you’d be mad not to swap for these. AND the Lidl crownfield corn Flakes Honey & Peanuts (500g, £1.15) were practically identical, too.

DON'T BOTHER: aldi’s harvest Morn Crunchy honey nut cornflakes (500g, 99p)tasted a little burnt.

ANDREX TOILET ROLL

(four rolls, £1.95, Sainsbury’s) WE ALL know it’s ‘soft, strong and very long’, but we also know it’s not cheap. andrex is a sign of luxury, which in these times of austerity is a noticeable cost on your till receipt. Surely this is one area you could cut back on without it hurting too much? BUT IT essential Waitrose Pure White Toilet Rolls (four rolls, £1.75) were good quality: soft and strong. and the Tesco Luxury soft toilet tissue (four rolls, £1.75) wasn’t far off. if you’re cutting back, you wouldn’t notice swapping to one of these.

DON'T BOTHER: aldi’s saxon softest Toilet tissue (four rolls, £1.49) was thin, flimsy and felt cheap.

DETTOL WIPES

(36, £1.75 or 84, £3.50, Sainsbury’s) THE staple of many a harassed parent, these throw-away wipes will leave your kitchen table or work surfaces clean in a trice. But they’re not cheap and you do get through an awful lot of them. I thought these would be difficult to test — how different could such wipes really be? and it turned out i was right.

BUY IT: essential Waitrose antiBacterial Multi surface Wipes (80, £2) were not only good value, but very effective against grease on my worktop after i’d been frying bacon, as were the tesco anti+Bac Lemon Multi-surface Wipes (40, £1.25).

i also thought the sainsbury’s antiBacterial Multi- surface Wipes (80, £1.50, until June 9) were strong and good at clearing marks and grease, as were the aldi Power Force Multiaction surface Wipes (40, 75p). DON’T BOTHER: Of all the wipes i tried, there wasn’t one i could find serious fault with, other than that most of them smelled a little too strongly of lemony bleach. Definitely a category in which the brand name ought to look to its laurels.

HEINZ BAKED BEANS

(415g, 75p, Tesco) DID you know their proper name is ‘ heinz Beanz’? neither did i, but apparently that’s been their official name since 2008. Whatever the name, i’ve been eating them since before i could read the writing on the tin. can anything else compare?

BUY IT: aldi’s corale Premium Quality Baked Beans in rich tomato sauce (425g, 32p) had a delicious, slightly spiced tomato flavour — i’d really recommend them. asda’s chosen By you Baked Beans in tomato sauce (410g, 32p) were also very good – and, like aldi’s, half the price of heinz. and the simply M& s Baked Beans in a rich tomato sauce (410g, 39p) were delicious, too. i’d buy all of these happily. DON’T BOTHER: While the beans in the sainsbury’s Baked Beans in tomato sauce (420g, 40p) were of decent quality, the sauce had a slightly metallic taste.

COCA-COLA

(1.75 litres, £1.85, Tesco) COKE — it’s the real thing. But does it matter if it isn’t?

BUY IT: Of all the colas i tried, tesco cola (two litres, 55p) was the one that tasted like the real thing — i think most people would be hard pressed to distinguish it from coke. Just the right sweetness and an authentic coke- style taste, it was delicious — and just look at the price difference.

Lidl Freeway cola (two litres, 39p) was also good, though with fewer bubbles than tesco’s. i really liked the simply M&s cola (two litres, 90p).

DON’T BOTHER: essential Waitrose cola (two litres, 90p) tasted like those homemade fizzy drinks in the eighties, while aldi’s Vive Original cola (two litres, 39p) barely tasted of a thing other than sugar.

PERSIL NON-BIOLOGICAL WASHING CAPSULES

(20, £7, Tesco) these little pouches filled with gel are becoming increasingly popular because they are easier to use and make less mess than powder. But you pay for the convenience.

BUY IT: i tried washing capsules from aldi, Waitrose, tesco, Lidl, sainsbury’s and M&s, and in each case they left my washing pristine and smelling gorgeous.

if i had to pick a favourite i’d go for the Lidl Formil non-Bio capsules (24, £3.45), even though the lid was hard to open, because their scent was so good — the whole house smelled as if i’d done a spring clean!

DON’T BOTHER: after trying all of these on various stained articles — including my white dressing gown, which had a cup of tea knocked over it, my son’s grass- stained football shorts and the white socks my daughter had run around the garden in — i can’t see an argument for sticking to the brand name in the laundry aisle.

i tried hard to find a fault with one, but everything i tried them on came out sparkling.

TWININGS EARL GREY TEA

(50, £2.79, Tesco) My First cup of earl Grey in the morning is one of my favourite parts of the day. and the tea has to be just right. it has always been twinings for me, apart from in those dark days of 2011 when they tinkered with the recipe, causing an outcry on social media and my brief (but too expensive) affair with Fortnum & Mason’s smoky earl Grey (try it — it’s divine).

anyway, it has been years since i tried an alternative, so i was interested to see how the supermarkets’ own labels compared.

BUY IT: aldi’s Diplomat earl Grey tea Bags (50, 99p) were an excellent substitute — not identical, as it tasted a little more strongly of black tea than twinings, but a particularly good flavour all the same and a substantial price difference.

Lidl’s Knightsbridge (50, 99p) were also very good.

DON’T BOTHER: M&s earl Grey teabags (50, £1.50) — i had high hopes for these as they smelled delicious when i opened the foil pack. But the taste was very disappointing — too much black tea and not enough bergamot/citrus flavour for a twinings fan like me. the tesco Finest* earl Grey tea Bags (50, £1.49) were also a little bland for my taste.