9 Nasty Truths About Your Favorite Foods
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Store brand products can be more affordable and, in many cases, better tasting than their name-brand counterparts. With some products, the larger national brands actually produce the store-brands, which simply receive different packaging before being shipped out to stores. Personally, I'm an open minded shopper and don't usually discriminate between name brand and non name brand food items. I buy store-brand sodas along with Diet Coke and do price and ingredient comparisons with products I haven't previously tried, often to discover that the store brand is almost identical to the more expensive corresponding brand.
That said, there are still some products that I won't buy if they're an off-brand. I prefer Heinz ketchup, for example, and approximations of Honey Nut Cheerios just don't quite measure up. It's probably because they're familiar flavors that I grew up with, and for that same reason, you probably have some, too. What store brand products will you not buy?
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10-06-2006 @12:43PM Rick said... For those of you who swear by Heinz, you should give Hunts a try. I find it's a bit more complex and ketchupy. Cook's Illustrated did a taste comparison in a recent issue...
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10-06-2006 @12:57PM MJ said... Got to have good toilet paper. You buy the cheap and youll either go through.........you know what I mean, or your behind will break out!LOL.........use a coupons and buy on sale !
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10-06-2006 @1:13PM Tammy said... I won't buy store brand potato chips and colas, although I don't buy those often to begin with. For baking, I absolutely will not buy store brand chocolate chips and flour. The quality has never been good enough for me.
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10-06-2006 @1:25PM Dawn said... I cannot use store brand toilet paper, oreos or cereal. Certain store do have high quality products. I can deal with Krogers's Big K soda.
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10-06-2006 @1:35PM MAXINE HAMMOND said... WELL I AM AN OLD BIRD SET IN MY WAYS BUT I DO HAVE MY FAVS.EGGO WAFFLES A MUST.KRAFT LITE SALAD DRESSING, BREYERS I/2 THE FAT ICE CREAM VANILLA AND STRAWBERRY.AND LEMON SCENTED PINE SOL. I DILUTE IT AND USE IT IN ALL MY TOILETS ITS A SMELL SAVER,FRESH AND CLEAN, USED IT FOR YEARS ALL THE OTHER STUFF IS SO EXPENSIVVE THIS IS SO ECONOMICOL.ORANGE BLOSSOM HONEY FOR A SWEETNER. INSTEAD OF SUGAR.AND FOLGERS COFFEE AND THEIR FLAVORED COFFEE,,, A LUXURY
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10-06-2006 @1:49PM Terri said... Consuming only organic products is not "pretentious" - it is healthier. Trader Joe's store brand products are more trustworthy as far as quality of ingredients and the prices are not outrageous - considering the value they provide. If you read labels, you will see that canned veggies have a great deal of sodium as do canned soups. Frozen veggies (TJ brand) have very little sodium as do TJ soups.
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10-06-2006 @1:52PM Dr. Electro said... Well, another minor controversy involving personal bias. This is the kind of commentary that is interesting to read as long as noone starts a fight.
I have no problem with store brands and generic items of any kind. H E B stores carry a store brand of ketchup that I find exactly the same as Heinz at half the price. However, there are certain foods I can't find in a store brand and there are many foods I am forbidden to eat on medical grounds.
That said, my peanut butter is, has always been and will always be Peter Pan creamy. I now buy the reduced fat variety. If I ever go crazy for ice cream it will be Wells Blue Bunny brand Bunny Tracks - no sugar added. I buy Bar-S brand franks but they are always low in price anyway. I buy Pioneer flour whenever I can. It's a bias toward family - the founder of Pioneer Flour was my great-grandfather. Everything else in the store is an open option.
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10-06-2006 @2:01PM Michael Schmitt said... It's pretty funny, but I work for a company that makes the powder that goes on some of those store brand "cheese curls" that you talk about and I see a lot from THIS side of the grocery aisle. There are companies out there that want to sell you the CHEAPEST (not the most INEXPENSIVE, mind you, but cheap) products possible so they can make a buck off of you through their store brands. Look for "whey" and "maltodextrin" to be pretty high on their ingredient declarations that are used as fillers. Then there are those store brands that are willing to put forth a bit of their resources and ask us to formulate some very decent products that don't add as many fillers and flavors.
Trader Joe's is a great example of a store brand that makes some great store brand products that happen to be organic. Just remember, there are a lot of fillers and flavors that can meet "organic" certification too, people. With Wal-Mart trying to sell more organic foods, you'll see how many "organic" sources of salt, citrates, flavors and such that the big companies can come up with.
Eat what you like, and do it in moderation.
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10-06-2006 @2:46PM Sarah said... I shop primarily at Safeway, and their store line is usually great. Better tasting many times! I also love their organic line.
Othherwise, I shop at Trader Joe's. Love how gourmet I can eat, on the cheap.
And most of all...I avoid many name brands due to corn syrup and high sodium levels. And anything with more than 10 ingredients!
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10-06-2006 @2:53PM Tansy said... I prefer store brands at Publix. They have very good quality. I also buy walmart brand cola.
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10-06-2006 @3:39PM peggy said... i like the pc ice cream at fred meyer (kroger) their mint chocolate chip is the oly store brand that has flaked chocolate like baskin robbins. but it has to be heinz, jif, and charmin or nothing...... safeway's sodas are pretty good, and i love wild oats sandwich cookies- lemon or chocolate.
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10-06-2006 @3:21PM Spitzmaus said... Another Trader Joe's house brand loyalist here. Amongst my favorites: their 28-oz. cans of whole, peeled Roma tomatoes with basil (no salt) for $.99, the crunchy peanut butter (peanuts and salt only, NOTHING else), and the organic broths in asceptic boxes (chicken and vegetable). One actually has to work hard to find high fructose corn syrup and/or partially hydrogenated oils in most TJ's products.
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10-06-2006 @4:13PM savvy said... Hellman's mayo, real Oreos, Yuban coffee.
I can't believe how many people like Tide. It leaves that horrible film on your cloths and stinks. Give me super washing soda and borax - gentle on fabric, cheap, and gets the dirt out.
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10-06-2006 @4:43PM Eric said... There are two items where I'll only buy store brands: dishwasher detergent ("Great Value" from Sprawl-Mart is truly astonishing, and is dirt-cheap) and paper towels (Costco's Brawny knock-off). Laundry detergent is a non-starter; I've yet to find anything that gets out grease on cotton knit polo shirts like Liquid Tide HE, even when I'm a little neglectful in the pretreating. I will not buy store-brand flour - it's usually not as consistent as King Arthur. I would sooner die of dehydration than drink store-brand soda - they usually lack much body/flavor depth, and there's no way in heck that I'm going to even *consider* store-brand ice creams - as a rule, they are ridiculously lean, high-overrun (fluffy) and have a lower level of variegates than bigger brands. They're intended for people who need to feed a gaggle of kids cheap. Blech. Oddly, I will eat store-brand novelties, because since the decline of the Ben & Jerry's Brownie Sandwich, there's really not a multi-unit-pack high-end ice cream sandwich worth eating.
E
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10-07-2006 @2:32PM Jeremy said... I agree with peanut butter, although for me it has to be the Smucker's all-natural. My favorite is the creamy, no-salt-added kind, although it leaves me wondering if I can't just make it myself with a bunch of peanuts and a blender.
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10-08-2006 @1:03AM Crosius said... Store-brand copies of Cheerios fall apart into a disgusting oat-slime instantly in milk.
I guess they don't use as much Trisodium Phosphate to keep them crispy.
So when I want toasted oats in fun ring shapes for breakfast, it has to be Cheerios.
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10-07-2006 @8:29PM thegoze said... dear julie,
please do not tell us what to eat. thanks.
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10-08-2006 @12:26AM Beanish said... All these people who love Oreos...sigh...I miss Hydrox...
As for store brands, I'll generally give Costco's brand a try, and Safeway Select cola is pretty good.
Given up on finding a good store-brand olive oil, however.
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10-08-2006 @2:55PM s said... there are just over a handful of products that are "must haves" that i won't substitute: heinz ketchup, helmann's (best foods) mayo, cheerios, ziploc baggies, temptee cream cheese, and coca cola. anything else, i'm amenable to cheaper versions, store products, or just preparing them at home. i look at reviews, ingredients, other people's opinions, etc, but just won't compromise those few :)
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11-06-2006 @12:10AM angel said... Oh and just one more item, lol...soap! it definitely has to be ZEST....nothing else will do, Zest is the only soap out there thet never leaves that filmy tight dry feeling on your skin yuck!!! and since I do have sensitive skin it's the only soap that doesn't leave me itching all over, ahh and most shampoos are ok, some off brands are just as good, but the off brand Conditioners tend to dry your hair out, as well as your scalp, I'm picky with my conditioner and some shampoos.
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