Health snack? Cheaper to buy fruit!

SNACK packs of healthy treats can be five times more costly than buying the raw ingredients separately.

A survey of supermarkets found enormous differences between the prices of packaged fruit and vegetables and those sold loose.

In Waitrose, a 190g bag of sliced mango cost £2.29 last week. But a whole 480g mango was only £1 – making the prepared version 479 per cent more expensive, if the stone and skin are included in the calculation.

In Marks & Spencer, a bag of sliced mango is £3.20 for 450g – 77 per cent more expensive than a whole mango, weighing in at 497g.

While a small pack of houmous and carrot batons at M&S seems good value at £1, it contains only 50g of houmous and 80g of carrot. And the store sells a 200g pot of houmous for £1 and loose carrots for only 6p. A similar premium was found at Tesco, where a snack pack containing only 30g of houmous and a handful of carrot sticks costs £1.25.

Helena Gibson-Moore, of the British Nutrition Foundation, said customers were not just losing out through pricing. ‘Most vitamins degrade over time so it is best to eat fruit and vegetables as fresh as possible,’ she said.

Spokesmen for Waitrose, Tesco and M&S said customers increasingly wanted healthy choices in convenient formats. They also pointed to packing and preparation costs.