According to this article the Co-op is planning a move into the online grocery market. Although the exact details of the what they will offer is unclear it appears they are planning to launch an online grocery service within the next year. Personally I really like many of the Co-op’s products which I find are often superior to those on offer at their larger rivals. The main problem that I find, however, is our local Co-op has a very limited range and often does not stock what I need. It is certainly not somewhere I could currently do my weekly shop and so I tend to use it, only for top-up shopping. If I could order from a larger range and have my shopping delivered I would certainly consider switching supermarkets. I will watching the developments with interest.

If you find that the avocados normally available in the supermarket are a little on the small side then these giant avocados could be just the thing. Much larger than the size we are used to seeing in our supermarket, these are about the size of a melon. They will be available from Waitrose priced at £4.99. Personally I’m not sure I could use it all before it started to go off, I guess you must really need to like avocado.

Ocado are trialling a new window shopping concept. Already tried in Japan it involves scanning the barcodes of products you want to buy from shop windows by using your smartphone as a scanner. The goods are then delivered to your door. It’s an interesting idea but personally I would prefer to shop online at my leisure rather than standing outside a shop scanning barcodes.

According to this article Twinings have recently changed the recipe of their Earl Grey tea, a move which has not proved popular with some customers. The tea has been rebranded as The Earl Grey and as part of this rebrand the recipe has been changed to include flavours of citrus and bergamot. Although the tea had gone through rigorous taste testing and consumer trials it seems many customers are not happy with the new flavour with some likening it to” foul tasting dishwater”. Tea enthusiasts have now launched a Facebook campaign entitled Bring Back The Original Earl Grey Tea in an effort to revert it to the old recipe.

I tend to steer well clear of shop brought sandwiches because they are often not only tasteless but also full of preservatives. For these reasons I prefer to buy fresh bread in the morning and make my sandwiches on the day I want to eat them. This new idea, then is probably not for me. According to the article scientists have found a way to make a sandwich last longer. The concept which is likely to be rolled out across convenience stores means a sandwich can be keep “fresh” or edible at least for anything up to two weeks. The sandwiches have a shelf life of 14 days and supposedly taste as good on day 14 as they do on day one of being made. Launched by Booker, the secret is to suck all of the oxygen out of the packaging. The fillings are also preserved with a slightly acidic mayonnaise which acts as a preservative. The flavours available will include chicken tikka, chicken and bacon, tuna mayonnaise and cheese onion which will all be available on oatmeal bread. They will be aimed at the budget shopper with a price tag of £1.49 per packet.

This is an interesting idea from Tesco it’s a strawberries and cream sandwich. It is thought to be the only sweet sandwich currently on sale and has been produced to celebrate this years bumper strawberry crop. The berries are sliced and placed between two slices of white poppy seed bread which has been spread with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam. I’m not entirely sure that I fancy the idea but if you do they are on sale at Tesco for just £1.00.

According to this article Asda is to bring back imperial measurements for some products. They will start by putting a 1lb punnet of strawberries on sale. The punnets will carry the weight in both imperial and metric measurements. It will be the first time in 16 years they have sold the product in imperial measurements and will be a test to gauge whether there is a demand for the change ahead of a potential roll out across other products. If it is successful measurements in pounds and ounces are likely to be added across their other ranges of fruit and vegetables. Since a change in an EU law in 2007 imperial units can be used as a “supplementary indication” alongside the metric ones.

This is interesting its a new Swedish design for ready meals that emits a whistle when the meal is cooked. The meal is packaged in a similar way to most ready meals with a plastic wrapping. However, it contains a valve in the in the packaging that seals in freshness after the meal is cooked in the factory. The same valve emits a whistle when the meal is cooked much the same as an old fashioned kettle does. It’s an interesting idea and should soon be on sale at Tesco if you fancy trying one.

If you tend to buy the bigger brands of ketchup rather than the supermarket own brands, then this article might make you change your mind. Big brands like Heinz and Branston performed much worse than the supermarket own brands in a blind tasting. A total of 13 tomato sauces were tested by consumer watchdog Which? The Heinz ketchup was found to be “artificial, bitter and vinegary”. Sainsbury’s ketchup came top and was praised for its “rich and fruity taste” and “thick, smooth, velvety consistency”. Marks and Spencer came 2nd whilst Tesco came 3rd and the Co-op 4th. Branston came 5th and Heinz managed 12 out of 13 with Daddies bringing up the rear. Unfortunately the article does not list all the prices of the sauces so it’s hard to make a proper comparison but I will certainly be checking out the Sainsbury’s alternative next time I am in the store.

According to this article Asda have recently launched a service where customers can trade in small gadgets. The service comes with a pledge that they will not be beaten on price by the five leading recycling businesses, Mazuma, Envirofone, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Boots. Under the scheme they will accept mobile phones, satnavs, digital cameras, MP3 players and portable games consoles. Typical prices include £20.01 for a Tom Tom satnav, £30.01 for a Sony Cyber shot digital camera and £14.01 for as Blackberry 8300. From June customers will also be able to trade in larger electronic goods such as laptops, tablets and games consoles. The gadgets will either be resold or recycled by specialist firms which extract metals for use in other devices.

If you have found Easter eggs to be a little more expensive this year then it seems  you are not alone. According to this article Easter eggs now cost up to 140% more. The rise is mainly down to the rising cost of chocolate largely caused by political unrest in the Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest supplier of cocoa. Higher production costs and the VAT increase are also factors that have made them more expensive. The rises mean that a Dairy Milk egg for example which cost £3.35 will now cost £5.50, a rise of 64%. Based on this I might be buying smaller Easter eggs this year.

According to this article Asda are promising they will be 10% cheaper than any other supermarket or they will refund the difference. Previously they have allowed shoppers to compare the price of their shopping with other supermarkets and have refunded the difference plus a penny if they were not the cheapest. Now they will extend the offer to refund any customer whose total shop is not 10% cheaper. The refund is given in the form of vouchers which are valid for 28 days. There is no minimum amount that can be claimed but there is a maximum limit of £50 a month that can be redeemed.

If you buy organic vegetables simply because you think they are healthier then you might be wasting your money. That’s according to a study which has recently been carried out by Danish researchers. They grew vegetables under both organic and traditional conditioners and measured the health giving properties of each. Their findings were that that there was little difference in the amount of polyphenols between the two types of vegetables. Whilst this is interesting I do wonder how many people buy organic for health benefits. Personally I prefer to buy organic when possible because I know they have not been treated with all sorts of pesticides and often they taste better. In an ideal world I would grow my own, but I have yet to manage to grow everything I need in the garden. Perhaps I need to try harder next year.

According to this article food prices are rising at their fastest for 15 months. The rise comes at a time when many families are already struggling with increases in other bills. In fact the cost of feeding the average family is up by £230 a year. Although the supermarkets have said they are protecting customers against the worse of the rises it appears that Tesco, Asda, Sainbury’s and Morrisons have all seen a profits boom. Higher commodity prices are behind the rise with prices of wheat up by 47% in a year, corn by 61%, beef by 17% and pork by 16%.

This article suggests that increases in food prices are leading to people buying less food. According to the article food prices rose by 1% between June and July this year, the biggest increase in recent months. With other household bills also rising and salary increases failing to keep up, it seems many people are simply having to buy less food. I have certainly noticed my shopping bill going up despite the fact that I only buy basic items. I have been purchasing cheaper cuts of meat to try and cut costs. I am also more concerned about food waste and try to make sure that everything is used even if it means making it into cat food. I have also been splitting food, particularly meat down into smaller portions and growing more fruit and vegetables to supplement our diet. All of these things mean that the food budget does stretch but it doesn’t get away from the fact that I am paying a lot more each month for our basic household shop.

This is interesting its a drive through supermarket that has recently been opened by Tesco. Called Click and Collect customers can order their shopping online and then drive to the collection point to pick it up. It is designed for customers who do not have time to wait in for an internet delivery. The store at Baldock in Hertfordshire is a pilot which if successful will be rolled out across the country.

Sainsbury’s are launching new eco friendly milk bags and jugs as an alternative to plastic bottles. The move comes as they try to reduce the carbon footprint of milk consumption. They have partnered with Dairy Crest to launch the products which should soon be on sale. They will start by stocking a whole milk bag which will be followed by semi skimmed and skimmed milk bags next year. The new product contains 75% less plastic than the plastic bottles and they take up less space when disposed of. The product is also 6p cheaper to buy. There have been reports that some customers have found them difficult to use and have experienced leaks and spills but it will be interesting to see if people switch from plastic bottles. Tesco are also planning to launch a similar product in their stores.

According to this article people are increasingly moving away from the humble biscuit onto more premium alternatives. It seems the rich tea, custard cream and digestive biscuit don’t quite hit the spot anymore when it comes to choosing a biscuit. Figures from market research company Nielsen have shown that people are instead buying more indulgent biscuits such as cookies and extra thick shortbreads. Sales of basic biscuits have fallen by 4.5% of the last year whilst sales of gourmet biscuits have increased by 20% in the same period. It is previously popular biscuits such as nice, jammie dodgers and custard creams that appear to be suffering as people demand better quality more premium biscuits.

Tesco have launched an offer where customers will be able to claim double Clubcard points. The scheme which is called the Big Clubcard Voucher Exchange will mean that customers can double the value of their points by exchanging them for vouchers in stores. Customers will shortly receive their latest Clubcard vouchers in the post but for a limited period they will be able to exchange these in store for double the value. So if you receive a £5 voucher you will be able to exchange it for one worth £10. The vouchers can then be redeemed as usual instore or online. The scheme runs until the 5th of the September.

Asda has issued a recall of some of its baby clothing over fears that it could cause a choking risk. The products affected are from the George Baby Basics range and include the 3 Pack Sleep Suit and the 7 Pack Body Suit which cost £6 each. The problem is with the transfer on the front of the clothing which can come unstuck after washing posing a coking threat to babies who could put it into their mouths. It is thought that thousands of the suits have been sold across the UK before a complaint was made in June.

According to this article Waitrose has been named compassionate supermarket of the year. Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have also won awards for improving the lives of farm animals. The awards were presented by Compassion in World Farming at their Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards. Waitrose scored best on issues such as overall well being of animals, stocking densities and the freedom of animals to express natural behaviour. Sainsbury's was named the Best Volume Supermarket and also won a Good Chicken award. Morrisons won the award for the Most Improved Supermarket whilst the Co-op and M&S also won Good Chicken awards.

A Tesco advertisement which gives the impression that their bread is baked fresh on the premises has been banned for misleading customers. The advertisement uses the headline “Fresh Bread. Baked from scratch in our in store bakery”. The problem is that in reality most Tesco stores only reheat loaves that have been prepared and part cooked on another site rather than cooked from scratch as suggested. In fact the supermarket only bakes its loaves from scratch in 504 of its 1,792 outlets. Tesco have said that the advert does contain small print which make it clear the loaves are baked from scratch in a limited number of stores only. However, Advertising Standards Agency have ruled that it can no longer be used.

If you feel you have been getting less strawberries than usual for the same money then you may be right. According to this article many of the supermarkets have shrunk the size of strawberry punnets whilst keeping the price the same. Last year Asda sold a 454g box of strawberries for £1.98. This year they are charging the same price for a 400g box. Sainsbury’s did sell a 400g box for £3.99 last year. This is no longer available and has now been replaced by a 300g box for the same price. Tesco have also introduced a smaller box but the article does not mention whether their prices have also changed. The retailers excuse is that the larger punnets were too big and led to strawberries getting crushed.

In their latest attempt at world domination Amazon have recently launched an online grocery store. In a move that could be direct competition for retailers such as Sainsbury's and Tesco Amazon are now offering food and household products. They will stock around 22,000 brands including Walkers, Kraft and Pampers and offer customers deals for buying in bulk. They also offer a few more unusual products that are harder to find elsewhere such as a whole lamb for £119.95. Looking around the selection the prices are not really any cheaper than other online retailers. There is also less fresh food on offer. I think it would probably suit people looking to do a bulk shop for cupboard staples but for me it won’t be replacing Sainsbury’s as my online retailer of choice. This is mainly due to the ease of shopping and the fact I can easily find what I need, for example accessing “my usuals” list rather than searching for each products. I may, however, use Amazon if I want to bulk buy an item and save a few pennies.

According to this article Waitrose will soon be stocking a range of food created by chef Heston Blumenthal. For those who are not familiar with the chef he is famous for some rather unique creations such as snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream, as well as being involved in trying to turn around the misfortunes of the Little Chef brand. The dishes in the Waitrose range are more familiar classics rather than food with the wow factor. They will include beef and ale pie, spinach and mushroom pie and chicken ham and leak pie although it’s not clear whether they will some twists in the recipes. Either way it could be something to look out for next time you are in Waitrose.

According to this article Asda have recalled a number of paper shredders due to a possible fault. The problem is with the Asda eight sheet diamond cut shredder which has been shown in some cases to have a fault in the plug. The product which was on sale for £19.97 has been recalled as a precaution after some customers experienced a small shock when using it. It is thought that a few thousand of the shredders have been sold. Anyone who has purchased one should stop using the product and return it to their nearest Asda store for a refund.

If this article is to be believed then Waitrose are currently offering more price cuts than the other major supermarkets. This is surprisingly particularly as they tend to have a reputation for being rather expensive. The results come from a survey which was carried out by the online consumer website Supermarket Own Brand Guide. It seems Waitrose have cut more prices in the past year than any of its mainstream rivals particularly when it comes to discounts on their own brand products. Although Waitrose matches Tesco and Asda on most basket items it seems the cheapest place to shop is still Aldi. The survey showed that Waitrose reduced prices on 16 of the 27 items in a typical basket on own brand goods and increased the prices on 8. Tesco cut the price of 14 products from the same basket and increased the prices on 11 and Sainsbury's reduced the prices of 8. I’m guessing, however, that when you take into account the prices of other items not seen as typical basket items the prices are still higher, it would be interesting to see a broader comparison.

According to this article Tesco are currently offering the best deal for school uniforms. They are offering polo shirts for 50p, sweaters for £1.75 and trousers or skirts for £1.50. The price is the same for all ages from three to sixteen year olds. Not to be outdone Sainsbury’s come second on price selling sweatshirts, skirts and trousers for £2.00 and a pack of three polo shirts for £2.00, a total cost of £4.66 for the entire uniform. Asda who have often had the cheapest price in the past are offering the uniform for a total of £6.00.

If this article is to be believed then there could be a shortage of Jersey Royal potatoes this year. The problem is down to the dry conditions the area has been experiencing following the worst drought on the Channel Islands in 34 years. It is expected the first yield of potatoes will be down as much as 50% as well as being two weeks late due to a recent sharp frost. With no rain predicted over the next few weeks it looks like we might paying a little more for our potatoes in the coming months. Although I have recently planted a bumper crop in garden so fingers crossed I see some results.

An attempt by the EU to ban misshapen fruit and vegetables has failed because it would mean too much food is wasted. A group of Euro MPs were trying to bring in uniform standardisation parameters which would have meant oddly shaped fruit and vegetables could not go on sale in the supermarkets. The proposal was defeated in the European Parliament because around a fifth of produce would end up being wasted as it would not conform to the guidelines. I’m not entirely sure why people would want to try and force through such a silly motion. At a time when food prices are so high I really don’t mind whether my vegetables are a little on the wonky side.

Tesco are backing a new online estate agency. The agency called Spicerhaart is launching the website iSold.com. It will launch initially in the Bristol area and will be advertised to users of the Tesco website. The service offers a basic online selling service for a flat fee of £999 rather than charging a percentage of the selling price as is the norm. All dealings with buyers and sellers will be conducted over the phone and online and the business will be kept separate for the Spicerhaart high street outlets.

According to this article the major food retailers have all agreed to cut the carbon footprint of their grocery packaging by 10% over the next two years. Some of the measures they will put into place include selling milk in plastic bags, meat in vacuum packed plastic bags and spirits in plastic bottles. Under the agreement retailers will also provide facilities to recycle wrappings and plastic bags. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer have all signed up for the agreement which could save consumers £800 million over three years because of the reduction in the amount of food thrown away. It should also save the industry £200 million and cut gas emissions by three million tonnes over the next three years.

Tesco has been ordered to pay £74,000 in fines after mice were found in one of its stores. Members of the public had reported seeing mice running around the aisles at the store in Martlesham near Ipswich. Poor cleaning and inadequate procedures were blamed for the failings. Tesco was convicted of eight hygiene related offences following a trial. Magistrates in Ipswich fined the store £17,000 and ordered it to pay £57,000 towards the council's costs.

If you are tempted by the by one get one free offers when you go shopping but often find you can’t use the products before they go off, then you might find this article interesting. It seems Tesco are looking to reduce food waste by offering a buy one get one free later deal. Under the offer customers will be able to take advantage of the deal but instead of having to take both products at the same time, they will be given a coupon to redeem against the second product at a later date. It seems like a good idea to me and would certainly encourage me to take advantage of the offers on perishable items which I would usually bypass.

If this article is correct then online food shopping is set to double within the next five years. That’s according to new estimates from the Institute of Grocery Distribution. Their research shows that customers will spend nearly £7.2bn on grocery shopping online by 2014, that’s nearly double the figure spent last year. Personally I do most of food shopping online. It allows me to shop for the whole month without worrying about getting it in my small car and I find I budget better and am less likely to overspend.

If you have put on a few extra pounds over Christmas then you might be interested in this new dress from Asda. It is designed to hide all of those lumps and bumps that you would rather you didn’t have. It works in a similar way to hold it in pants, having built in control panels in all the right places. At £28 for the dress and £16 for a skirt it claims it can take as much as inch and half off the waist. It certainly looks interesting but I feel the article would be better illustrated by using a model who has some lumps and bumps herself, that way it would be easier to see the effects of the garment.

If this article is correct we could soon expect to pay a little more for a carton of orange juice. According to the article cold weather and disease have hit the citrus groves in Florida which produce much of the world’s orange juice. This has already led to the price of concentrated juice doubling in the past year. As yet this has not affected the prices we pay in the supermarket because stores usually fix their prices a long time in advance, however, we should expect prices to rise by between 10 and 30 per cent when contracts are renegotiated.

According to this article some British sausages are made up of as much as a third fat and only 32 per cent meat. The rest of the sausage is usually made up of ground wheat rusk which is used as a bulking agent to cut costs and improve the texture of the sausage. A study has been carried out on 36 brands of sausages including the country’s biggest sellers to find out exactly what goes into them. Researchers for the journal Meat Science looked at the packaging for information on meat fat and salt content. On average the sausages contained 62 per cent meat but four of the sausages that were looked at had less than 50 per cent and the worst one had less than a third pork. The study did not identify the different brands but did reveal that the two sausages with the lowest meat content were Asda Smart Price with 34% pork and Sainsbury’s Chipolatas with 32% pork.

This article suggests that some supermarkets are misleading customers with bargains that are not all they seem. The main focus of the article is a half price deal being offered by Tesco on Bernard Matthews turkeys. The turkeys are being offered at £20 which Tesco claims is half price, however, the turkeys have only been on sale for the full price of £40 for a short period of time. Tesco began selling the turkeys on the 3rd of September and made the price cut on the 1st of October allowing the birds to be at half price in the run up to Christmas. The chains rivals, however, say that the product should retail at just £20, the price they are all charging. It seems then, this particular deal is not such a great one. I wonder how many other offers are real reductions.

According to this article a bottle of champagne from Sainsbury’s that costs just £16 has performed better than some brands which cost twice as much. The champagne beat Moet and Chandon and 11 other champagnes to come second in a blind tasting. A total of 14 champagnes were tested, nine from major supermarket chains and three from big champagne houses. The Sainsbury’s Blanc de Noirs champagne was only beaten by Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label which received 90 points whilst the Sainsbury’s champagne received 89. At half the price though you can’t help thinking you might be better off going to Sainsbury's. The cheapest champagne tested was Aldi’s Veuve Monsiny which costs £9.99. It managed 10th place with a score of 84 points.

According to this article nearly half of cheddar sold in Tesco is actually imported despite the pack implying that it is British. The packaging may say that the cheddar is packaged in Britain but it means just that. It is actually made elsewhere and imported. Nearly half of it is made in Latvia, Ireland and New Zealand and is simply packed in Britain. Whilst this might not seem like a big deal, people have different reasons for buying British and in this case it seems they are led to believe a product is British when it clearly isn’t. Personally I prefer to buy British produce where possible because I would rather support British farmers especially during the recession when times are tough. I also believe that the less distance my food has to travel the fresher it is likely is to be and of course the impact on the environment is less. I will certainly be checking the labels much more closely and will steer clear of anything marked “packed in Britain” in favour of “made in Britain” in the future. 

According to this article Aldi and Lidl are both selling a bottle of champagne for just £9.99. Aldi’s Vue Monsigny and Lidl’s Comte de Brismand both sell for just under £10. They get mixed reviews from critics with some experts suggesting the taste is not that great but others calling it elegant and fruity. Unfortunately I don’t have an Aldi or a Lidl near me otherwise I would buy some and post a review. Have you tried either of these bottles of champagne and if so what were they like?

If you fancy doing some shopping on Boxing Day then its looks like you might in luck this year as a record number of supermarkets will be open. More than 300 large supermarkets are due to open this Boxing Day  compared with only a handful two years ago. Both Tesco and Sainsbury’s are doubling the amount of stores that will open in response to customer demand. Tesco will open 252 stores and Sainsbury will open 94. Supermarkets will also open later on Christmas Eve with some stores being open until 10pm meaning some stores will be closed for less than 24 hours over the Christmas period.

According to this article it is possible to cook Christmas dinner for eight people for just £2.78 a head. The Good Housekeeping Institute priced 11 ingredients mainly from Lidl and Morrisons and some from Tesco and Sainsbury’s. It found that it is possible to buy a turkey from Lidl and Morrisons for just £9.99. Lidl also came out best for some of the trimmings such as sprouts, carrots and parsnips whereas Tesco had the best value Christmas pudding at just £1. If the article is correct it appears that you can find a bargain if you shop around.

According to this article Marks and Spencer are now selling more British cheeses than they are French cheeses. They are now selling two British cheeses for every French one with sales of British cheese increasing by 30%. The figures were considerably different five years ago with French cheese being much more popular. It appears the rise in popularity may be down to the fact that during the recession consumers are more inclined to buy British to support British businesses and farmers. However, British cheeses such as cheddar and stilton are also becoming more popular abroad with Neal’s Yard Dairy now exporting about 35 tons of cheese every year to France.

According to this article 65% of supermarket chickens contains a bug called campylobacter. The bacteria causes around 55,000 people a year to fall ill every year and causes symptoms such as diarrhoea, cramping and stomach pain which usually last for about a week. People with weakened immune symptoms can be at risk of the bacteria spreading to the bloodstream and causing a life threatening infection. The illness can however, be prevented by properly cooking food. Surprisingly Free range and organic chicken are actually more likely to carry the bug than battery birds.

Waitrose has come to the rescue of the Duchy Originals brand which has been struggling during the recession. The brand which was founded by Prince Charles in 1990 to promote organic food and farming has seen a slump in profits during the last two years. It is thought that customers have been put off buying the brand due its high prices. Waitrose is the biggest stockist of the brand and have now struck a new licensing agreement which will give them the exclusive right to make and distribute the product across its 214 branches. Waitrose will also sell the products wholesale but will only allow independent stores and restaurants to stock them. They also have plans to extend the range from 200 to 500 products.

I have been aware for some time that Christmas displays in shops are getting ludicrously early. This article, however, suggests that some stores are starting to sell their Christmas range now and are even considering offering Christmas items all year around. Debenhams, for example will start stocking Christmas products before the end of the month. The move comes partly to try and take advantage of the summer tourist trade but also because it is thought people are more likely to want to stagger their Christmas purchases because of the recession.

Tesco are now offering double the amount of loyalty card points in a bid to tempt more customers. According to the article sales growth at Tesco has been outpaced by its main rivals in the past year prompting the supermarket to look at new ways of retaining customers. All Clubcard holders will now receive double the amount of rewards every time they shop meaning you will now get two point for every pound you spend in store or online. I do have a Tesco Clubcard but personally I find I currently receive very little rewards and that I frequently forget to use the vouchers I receive. I wonder why Tesco don’t go the same way as Sainsbury’s and simply allow you to take the money off your shopping bill at the checkout. I find this works a lot better and means that I can save my points up for an expensive event such as Christmas to buy a few luxury items that we wouldn’t usually be able to afford.

According to this article the average British family throw away £610 of food every year. The figure is based on a household with children and amounts to 6.5 million tonnes of rubbish. Based on this ministers want supermarkets to replace buy one get one free offers in favour of half price deals as well as introducing a larger range of pack sizes. They also want supermarkets to use clearer labels so that customers are sure of the difference between the use by date and the best before date. The article made me wonder how much of our household waste is food waste. I am certainly getting better at reducing the amount of rubbish we produce and try to make as much use of leftovers as possible mainly to try and save a bit of money but we still seem to have several sacks of rubbish every week.

According to this article Asda has actually increased the price of one one in five of its products despite its pledge to roll back prices. Trade magazine The Grocer has found that in many cases the supermarket has been rounding price up rather than down. It checked 969 products and found that 173 actually cost more in July than they did in March. A third of the products were the same price that they had been in March and 477 products were cheaper in July than in March. The Grocer found that one in five of the round pound lines which are heavily publicised has been sold for less than pound in recent months. Often customers often see the items priced at a £1.00 and fail to realise that they were actually previously on sale at a cheaper price.

If you don’t have the time to boil an egg then you can now buy them ready boiled at the supermarket. The eggs are produced by The Happy Egg Company. They are peeled boiled and peeled by machine before being packed and have a shelf life of nine to ten days. The eggs will be on sale at Waitrose, Asda, One Stop and Ocado at 89p for a pack of two or £1.49 for four. The Happy Egg Company is marketing the eggs as an ideal snack for picnics and a tasty snack that can be prepared in minutes. Personally I would rather just boil them myself.

According to this article Marks and Spencer is the worst supermarket for packaging waste. A study found that the supermarket is worse than Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons when it comes to packaging. Which? found that its packs of bacon, punnets for mushrooms and tubs for ice cream were all heavier than similar packaging from their rivals. Which? brought 27 own brand items from leading supermarkets including fresh and frozen food and washing up liquid and fizzy drinks. In each case the total packaging including the labels was weighed. The total weight of Marks and Spencer’s packaging was 415g, Sainsbury’s was the lightest at 369g and Tesco was just slightly more at 370g. Marks and Spencer said the study was flawed because it failed to take into account the amount of recycled material that was included in the packaging. They claim that in many cases their packaging may weigh more but is actually more environmentally friends because it is made from more recycled content.

According to this article some supermarket salads contain more fat and calories than you would find in a Big Mac and fries. The consumer group Which? looked at a number of salads on sale in supermarkets. It founds that a Smedleys Atlantic prawn marie rose salad from Morrisons contained 855 calories and 66.3g of fat. A Sainsbury’s tomato and basil chicken salad also had a high fat content with 27.7g of fat and 595 calories. In comparison a Big Mac and medium fries contains 820 calories and 40g of fat. The reason for the high fat content of most of the salads was the fact that they contained a large amount of mayonnaise, creamy sauces or pasta all of which are high in fat.

According to this article Waitrose shoppers are increasingly choosing the supermarkets budget range as they try to save money. Their essential range of products are packaged in simple white boxes and packets are similar to the basics range of products produced by Sainsbury’s. Sales of the range are up 11 per cent compared to a year ago and the supermarket expects to sell £600 million of essential products over the next 12 months. Sainsbury’s have also recently published figures that suggest shoppers are choosing the budget range of products. What do you think? Are you cutting back?

Sainsbury’s will be the first of the major supermarkets to scrap cereal boxes on its own brands. The supermarket will stop using cereal boxes and will instead use recyclable plastic bags. Sainsbury’s have already started selling milk in polythene bags in an attempt to cut down on packaging. Scrapping cereal boxes should mean that they cut down on packaging by a third. They have already started stocking basics Rice Pops in the new packaging and eventually hope to scrap boxes for all of their own brand cereals. They have also reduced packaging on soft fruit by replacing the plastic punnet with a lid with a heat seal wrap and are looking at reducing packaging on meat.

One lady got a shock when she opened a jar of tikka masala sauce from her local Asda and found that it contained something extra. Along with the curry sauce she found a dead mouse which it seems had fallen into the jar before it was sealed. The jar of sauce has since been sent away for analysis in order to establish where it came from.

This is interesting, its an idea that is being tried by Sainsbury's to make their stores greener. Under the scheme the checkout would be powered by energy which is created by the shoppers. Kinetic road plates will be installed at a new branch in Gloucester. The plates will generate energy when customers drive over them when entering and leaving the car park. The device will then convert enough energy to power the tills inside the store reducing the amount of energy taken from the National Grid. The devices are already being tried at distribution warehouses but this will be the first time they will be used at a supermarket. If the scheme is successful in Gloucester it could soon be put into place at more stores across the country.

According to this article wine sales in Britain have fallen for the first time in ten years. Figures show that the average British household does still drink more than a bottle of wine a week, however, it appears that people are cutting back. 1.16 billion litres of wine were sold in Britain in 2008, a two per cent fall on the previous year and the first time there has been an annual fall since 1995. One factor that might be behind the fall is the increase in wine duty last year which means a duty of £1.61 on a standard bottle. It might also be that people are spending their money more wisely in the current economic climate. What do you think? Are you buying less wine?

Asda is selling a school uniform priced at just £4.75. The uniform includes a cotton polo shirt or easy iron shirt, a cotton sweatshirt and Teflon coated trousers. It is available for all ages from three up to sixteen. Asda have said that the same uniform would cost around £15.25 at Tesco and £21.50 and Marks and Spencer so it seems this is a really good deal.

According to this article a £3 sun lotion from Asda was among the best is a test carried out by Which? The low priced lotion offered a better defence than some other brands which cost three times as much. In the survey 14 products were tested, all of which claimed to offer a protection factor of 15. However, only five of the products actually met this standard. In fact the sun cream from Asda was found to offer a protection level of 24, more than was stated on the bottle. Some the creams which failed to make the standard were sold by Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Wilkinsons. It just goes to show you don’t always have to spend a lot of money to get a good product.

According to this article around half of people who buy their groceries online receive the wrong items. A questionnaire found that 45% had at least one of their items substituted for another product and 15% received something they had not ordered. I have used the Sainsbury’s Online for about five years now and whilst it did used to be fairly unreliable with missed deliveries and broken down vans over the past couple years it has been quite good. I usually receive the correct items with few substitutes and can only ever remember receiving items I haven't ordered once. On that occasion I received a bag of cigarettes (I don’t smoke) but the situation was quickly resolved when I called the store and upon realising the mistake they collected them and brought my bag of shopping in its place.

This strange looking fruit is a Kumato. It’s basically a new variety of tomato which originates from the wild tomato. Unlike normal tomatoes it can be eaten even when it is still green. Apparently when still green it has a mild taste and is good for slicing. As it ripens to a dark brown it is sweeter and slightly spicy and is good in salads. When it finally develops a dark red colour it becomes much sweeter than the conventional tomato. The kumato will go on sale at 50 Marks and Spencer stores from next Monday priced at £2.49 per pack.

It appears that proms are rapidly becoming big business in the UK but it doesn’t come cheap with parents spending an estimated £258 on tickets, transport and outfits. With this in mind Asda have launched a budget prom dress with a price tag on just £30. It comes in two colours green and pink and you includes matching shoes. The supermarket have also launched a £35 tuxedo for the boys so if you are on a budget the prom doesn’t need to break the bank.

Sainsbury’s have posted better than expected profits with a 11.3% rise to £543 million. The supermarket has said that like for like sales rose by 4.5% in the year to the 21st of March. The rise is put down to the increasing population of their Basics range and the Jamie Oliver Feed Your Family For a Fiver campaign which has been running on TV. The profits mean that Sainsbury’s staff will share a bonus pot of £60 million, compared to last year’s £47 million.

It appears that one company at least is still doing well despite the recession. Tesco have recently announced record profits of £3 billion, that’s a rise of 10% since last year. It is estimated that the company currently takes more than £1 billion a weeks and profits are around £8.6 million a day. Tesco bosses say that the company is thriving because Tesco attracts customers with price cuts and discounts. Despite this claim research by mysupermarket.co.uk has shown that a basket of staple food costs 9% more than it did this time last year. As prices go up there appears to be evidence that stores are taking an large percentage of shoppers money. The big supermarkets are also accused of boosting their profits by squeezing suppliers.

Discount supermarket Lidl are offering a £5 lobster to attract customers over the Easter period. The lobsters are pre-cooked and frozen and weigh three quarters of a pound. As well as £5 lobsters the supermarket is also offering a whole 5lb duck for £5.99 and a 1.5lb salmon for £4.49. The promotions are part of an Easter offer which starts on the 30th of March. When the supermarket ran a similar promotion last year it attracted a huge amount of attention from middle class customers who flocked to store to take advantage of the limited offer. It certainly looks like a good deal but unfortunately I don’t have a Lidl that’s local.

Supermarket chain Morrisons appears to be doing rather well despite the credit crunch and has announced plans for 40 new supermarkets. Most of the new supermarkets are likely to be in South where they hope to lure customers away from more expensive rivals. The chain has recently announced a £43million increase in profits, a rise of around 7%. The new stores are part of a strategy to have a store just 15 minutes drive away for most of the population.

The Co-operative Group will complete it's takeover of the grocery chain Somerfield next week. Under the £1.6bn takeover the Co-op will close Somerfield's Bristol head quarters and move the staff to Manchester. The Co-op has said that it hopes to relocate as many as possible of the 750 employees that will be affected by the move. The takeover means that the Co-op will take on more than 650 Somerfield stores across the UK making it the fifth largest food retailer behind Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisions.

Tesco are planning to launch an online clothing store to sell it own labels. The website would offer thousands of item including the Florence and Fred, Cherokee and My Favourite Things ranges. It is expected to be launched in the autumn and is part of Tesco plan to try and grab a slice of the internet clothing business which currently accounts for around 4% of the total clothing market. Although Tesco enjoys strong sales of its clothing ranges instore, it is currently not possible to purchase these online, but it looks like this is soon going to change.

Police in Hampshire have opened a police station with a difference, it is inside a supermarket. The facility has been opened at the Sainsbury's supermarket in Lordshill Southampton. It will be staffed three afternoons a week and is designed to be used just like a normal police station giving people greater access to the service.

Iceland have brought 51 of the former Woolworths stores that closed recently after Woolworths went into administration. The announcement comes only a few days after the last 200 Woolworths stores closed. The move will add to Iceland's existing 682 outlets and is likely to create 2,500 new jobs. A full list of the 51 stores is below.

Alton, Barnsley, Belper, Bethnal Green, Bexhill On Sea, Bicester, Billericay, Blandford Forum, Bodmin, Boreham Wood, Bow, Braintree, Broadstairs, Devizes, Exmouth, Fraserburgh, Frome, Greenford, Hackney, Hailsham, Harold Hill, Haverhill, Herne Bay, Hexham, Highgate, Honiton, Kilburn High Road, Leyton, Malvern, Matlock, Mill Hill, Minehead, Monmouth, Morpeth, Morriston, Newtownards, Palmers Green, Pinner (Rayner's Lane), Palmers Green, Plumstead, Pontypool, Poplar, Portslade, Ringwood, St Neots, Stoke Newington, Strood, Sudbury, Swaffham, Wakefield, Wallington, Whitstable

This article suggests that supermarkets are hiking up prices at a time when their costs are actually going down. According to the article although supermarkets claim to be cutting prices for their customers, they have actually imposed price increases on staple foods. The increase in costs could add as much as £1,100 a year to a family's grocery bills. The big four stores, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons have all been criticised for fattening up their profits at a time when they could be passing the savings onto hard pressed customers.

Asda has recalled 60,000 DVD players after a fault was found in the item. The retailer has estimated that around a third of the DVD players have a hole in the outer casing that could put users at a risk of electrocution. The affected product is model DVD1072UK which retails at £17.97. Asda have not said how many have been sold to customers but have asked people who have purchased one to return it to their nearest store. Customers will be able to obtain a refund if they return the DVD player even if they no longer have the box or a receipt.

Marks and Spencer will cut the price of many of its products in a bid to take on discount grocery and fashion stores. The price cutting drive has been announced at a time when their half year profits have fallen by 34%. M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose said that the store group was planning to reduce costs to match the publics desire for cheaper goods. The group have also been running promotions such as their "dine in for £10" and weekend promotions which appear to be tempting customers back to their stores.

Tesco will expand its discount range to try and entice budget conscious customers. Increasingly customers have been moving towards discount stores like Aldi, Netto and Lidl to try and cut costs as the credit crunch hits. Tesco has already discounted hundreds of everyday groceries but will cut the cost of hundreds more in the next few weeks. They claim that customers are already choosing less well known discount brands instead of costlier versions of products such as tomato ketchup, beef burgers, washing up liquid and lettuce. Personally I have been choosing more supermarket own brands as prices keep creeping up.

Some of the leading supermarkets have announced more petrol cuts in a second week of fuel cuts. Morrisons cut 2p from the price of a litre of unleaded and diesel making the prices 97.9p and 109.9p. Asda introduced the same prices for its fuel yesterday morning. Tesco have cut prices to less than £1 a litre and have said it will knock a further 2p off prices at most of its filling stations. Sainsbury's have said that they will reduce their costs of unleaded petrol to 97.9p a litre and diesel to 109.9p a litre. Total, BP and Shell have also announced cuts.

Production of White Rabbit candy products has resumed after the China milk scare. The vanilla flavoured sweets which are exported across the world were withdrawn during the Chinese milk scare after fears that they contained melamine. Chinese officials have accused milk suppliers of adding the chemical to batches of milk to artificially boost its protein content. Four babies have dies and more than 54,000 children fell sick as a result. China's state council made an announcement yesterday that they will overhaul the dairy industry and punish companies that have put profit above safety. The manufacturer of White Rabbit candy will now undergo government quality testing as checks are carried out on milk products in China. The company have not yet said when the product will be back on sale.

Tesco is planning a move into the mortgage market as loans from traditional lenders become fewer. With the recent mergers of some of the larger banks like Lloyds and HBOS customers now have much fewer choices when looking for a home loan. Tesco will offer mortgages through a Tesco branded retail bank which will be launched after buying the other half of its Tesco Personal Finance venture from the Royal Bank of Scotland. The deal to but out RBS is expected to be completed in November.

Some scientists have said that energy drinks should carry warnings. The so called "performance drinks" can often contain as much caffeine as at least ten cans of coke. Recently there have been concerned that caffeine dependency is causing disruption and concentration among school children in the classroom. A drink such as Relentless made by Coca Cola contains 160mg of caffeine in a 500ml can whilst a 248ml can of Spike Shooter contains 300mg of caffeine, nearly ten times the amount in cola. Scientists have said that consumers need more information about what is in the drinks and that they should also be warned about the potential health risks such as caffeine intoxication.

Tesco has recalled its White Rabbit Creamy Candies after they were found to contain melamine. Melamine has recently been found in formula milk in China and is thought to have caused the death of four babies and made around 53,000 children ill. Although the sweets are not thought to have made anyone ill, Tesco are withdrawing them as a precaution.

A dental surgery has opened in a supermarket in Manchester. The surgery has been opened at the Sale branch of Sainsbury's becoming the first dentist clinic to open in a UK supermarket. It will be open seven days a week and follows a similar initiative to open a GP surgery in a supermarket. The dental surgery will charge £16 for a check up which is slightly less than the current NHS charge of £16. It is hoped that it will make dental treatment more accessible and convenient for the patients. 

A leading expert has said that everyone should have at least one meat free a week to help save the planet. He says that meat farming produces enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and that if every ate vegetables just once a week it would be more beneficial than other measures such as cutting car journeys.

Tesco are to open a supermarket that is built to be pensioner friendly. The supermarket which is planned for Newcastle would supermarket feature extra wide aisles, anti-slip flooring and trolleys with locking wheels and built in chairs. The plans are still is the early stages but follow a similar idea that has been implemented at a supermarket in Germany.

This article suggests that customers are losing out as some supermarket brands are reducing the pack size but are still charging the same price. Effectively this tactic means customers are paying more for their goods without realising it. Many brands are reluctant to put up prices but instead appear to using this rather underhand method to protect their profits. Some examples include Pampers which have reduced the amount of nappies in some packs whilst keeping the price the same. Dairylea, Pringles, Strongbow and Rolo has all also cut pack sizes without cutting prices.

A Government advisor has said that fatty foods should carry health warnings. Professor David Hunter has said that the NHS could become unaffordable within decades because of the cost of treating conditions linked to obesity. He said that ministers should force manufacturers put warnings on food which contain high amounts of fat, sugar or salt. He also said that warning labels could help to phase unhealthy foods and eventually lead to their withdrawal from the supermarket shelf. Its an interesting idea but personally if I saw a warning on a big chocolate cake, I would still buy the cake. I know it might not be very good for me but I will be off to the gym to work it off after I have eaten it.

According to this article food prices have risen by 9.5% in the last year. The increase is the highest for 15 years and is despite the fact that the main supermarkets claim they have been making cuts. The figure for fresh food is up by 10.8% for the last year according to the British Retail Consortium. The increasing cost of food, fuel, gas and electricity is currently outpacing salary rises and means that many families are having to cut back just to afford the essentials.

Morrisons have cut the price of petrol by 2p in the latest round of the supermarket price wars. Oil prices have recently fallen but oil giants have been criticised for falling to pass on the savings to the consumer. Price reductions can often take weeks to filter through but any cuts should in the wholesale price should reach the pumps within days. However, it appears only the supermarkets are passing on the bulk of these reductions. Morrisons have cut their price by 2p off a litre of diesel and unleaded with Asda saying it will do the same. Tesco have also said it will match the lowest local petrol price at its forecourts.

The Co-Operative Group has become the country's fifth largest food retailer after agreeing a £1.6billion takeover of Somerfield. The takeover will mean that the Co-op will acquire 3,000 outlets across the country and an eight per cent market share.

This article suggests that supermarket price cuts have helped to stem the increase in grocery bills. Although the increase is still running at 17.8% it has fallen from 19.8% and this has been attributed to special offers and reductions on a number of products including broccoli and sausages. Supermarkets have been slashing prices on some products in an effort to become the cheapest store at a time where customers appear to be becoming more price aware.

Sainsbury's has started putting electronic tags on chickens in its Eastbourne store. They have introduced the measures after an increasing amount of people have been stealing chickens. Previously tags were only used on high value goods such as alcohol but with the increasingly high costs of meat it appears that chicken is now much sought after. Anyone who tries to steal a chicken from the Eastbourne store will now set off an alarm.

It appears that real ale is enjoying something of a revival as shoppers cut back on lager in favour of the more traditional British beer. That's according to this article which says lager sales fell by 5.7 per cent last year whereas ale sales increased by 3.3 per cent. One reason for the change could be that's supermarkets have started to stock a bigger range of premium bottled beers. Tesco for example now stock 300 bottles ales instead of only 50 two years ago. All Hail the ale.

Some of the leading supermarkets have announced cut price promotions as customers start to move to discount stores to save money. Stores like Aldi and Lidl have seen strong growth as they sell items such as bread and eggs for as little as 50p. In response Tesco has said it will cut the cost of 3,000 items on Monday with some items being cut by as much as 50%. Sainsbury's has also responded with temporary price cuts on summer items such as strawberries.

Sales of frozen food have risen by 4.2% in the past year. The rise has been put down to the fact that food costs have soared leading shoppers to look for cheaper alternatives. After five years of little growth, the frozen food sector appears to be enjoying a growth spurt with fish products seeing an 11% increase in sales and frozen vegetables a 5.5% increase.

Cheap supermarket alcohol could be banned under new plans by ministers. They plan to introduce a minimum price for alcohol which would put the price at least 35p per unit. The move is aimed at cutting down binge drinking among teenagers. If it goes ahead it would an end to cut price deals in supermarkets and would mean that a can of Foster's would cost at least 72p, whilst a can of Stella would be priced at 88p. Some supermarkets currently sell a can of beer for as little as 23p.

This article suggests that supermarkets are profiteering from the huge rise in the price of eggs by taking the greatest share of the 47.4% increase in prices. Although supermarkets claim to be protecting shoppers from the rising prices of food, they have taken the bulk of the profits made from the rise in egg prices. Eggs have gone up by 47.4% or 83p since last May but farmers have seen only 12p of this which is barely above the cost of production. In contrast the supermarkets and packers get 71p of the rise.

This article suggests that the CD single might have had its day. It is based on the fact that the leading high street chain Woolworths plans to stop selling them and instead concentrate on music downloads. The store will not sell CD singles from August although it will stock some one off event singles that are guaranteed to be large sellers. It has launched its own website for music, video and games to offer downloads. I wonder whether other high street stores will follow their lead.

This article suggests that some brands of vegetarian sausages and burgers contain more salt than the meat equivalent. Researchers found that some vegetarian burgers contain six times more salt than a meat burger with others containing as much salt as five packets of crisps. Fry's Vegetarian Traditional Sausage contained 2.8g of salt, more than four times the pork equivalent meaning that just two sausages would provide the recommended daily intake for an adult. Other leading brands also fared quite badly in the test.

In Tesco's latest clamp down on underage drinking the supermarket has been refusing to sell to customers if there are accompanied by their children. In one case mentioned in this article a 39 year old lady was refused alcohol because she was shopping with her 18 year old son, despite the fact her son is old enough to purchase alcohol. In another a man was refused alcohol because he had his 15 year old daughter with him. He was told that Tesco do not sell alcohol to people who have children with them. It seems a little odd to think that someone who was actually buying alcohol for a minor would have the child accompany them in the trip around the store. In my experience when you see this happening the children usually wait outside whilst the adult purchases the drink. One thing is for sure Tesco can be little overzealous in their attitude, despite being 30 and clearly old enough to drink I regularly get asked for ID when purchasing alcohol at Tesco and nine times out of ten I don't have any ID on me because I don't expect to get asked at my age. I am finding now that a trip to Tesco means I must take my driving licence with me. The annoying thing is the people that usually ask me for ID look half my age and probably are not old enough to sell alcohol without being supervised anyway.

Tesco has recently spent nearly £1 billion to acquire stores in South Korea. It has owned stores in Korea for nine years but is now buying 36 Homever discount hypermarkets. Tesco already runs the Homeplus chain in South Korea which comprises of 66 hypermarkets and 72 Homeplus Express stores but the new stores will put Tesco neck and neck with Shinsegae who are the current market leader in the country.

Waitrose has been experiencing a pasta shortage after it ran out of suppliers of its own brand dried pasta at the start of April. The problem was caused by a row between the supermarket group and its supplier in Italy over quality issues. Waitrose customers have for the last few weeks only been able to buy other branded pasta from the store, most of which costs more than the own brand alternative. The supermarket chain has now said that the issue has been resolved and that the shelves would be fully stocked within two weeks.

A man in Suffolk has found a baby tarantula in a bunch of grapes he brought from Asda. He caught the spider which was later rehomed at a local reptile centre. I hate stories like this, they always make me a little wary when buying fruit.

Waitrose have recalled organic eggs from one of its suppliers after fears they could be contaminated. It is thought that the chickens had eaten lead shot. The affected eggs are Blacktail Columbian organic eggs with the code OUK20137 stamped on them. Other organic eggs from Waitrose are not affected. Customers who have purchased the eggs are advised to return them for a refund.

Tesco is currently having talks about selling its property website. The website was launched in June last year with a view to undercutting traditional home sellers. At the time some estate agents took legal action to stop properties they were marketing appearing on Tesco's website. Now one of those who originally criticised the website are having talks regarding buying the business. Spicerhaart is the UK's largest independently owned estate agency network. They would own and operate the business with Tesco marketing it.

Tesco will scrap its online florist service from the beginning of May. The decision was taken after Valentine's Day sales were disappointing. The move comes despite the fact that Tesco revealed record profits earlier this month. It is thought, however, that they are reviewing costs ahead of what is likely to be a competitive time for the sector.

Asda have launched a mobile phone that costs just £5 making it Britain's cheapest pay as you go mobile phone. The available models including the Nokia 1112, Sagem My212x, Sagem My220x and Sagem My150x on a number of tariffs from Virgin, T Mobile and Orange. Over 50,000 handsets went on sale last Friday at Asda stores across the UK.

Tesco are due to announce record profits. They have managed to make a £5,300 profit for every minute of last year, a total profit of around £2.8bn. This is 6% more that their profits for the previous year and about the same as the combined profits of Sainsbury’s and Asda. They have benefitted from growth within the UK and the expansion into international businesses in Poland, Hungary and South Korea.

The Food Standards Agency has called for a ban on six artificial colours because they cause mood swings. Tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), ponceau 4R (E124) and allura read (E129) have been linked to hyperactivity in a study carried out by Southampton University. The researchers estimated that 30% of hyperactivity disorder would be prevented if compaies removed these colours from their products. The colours are found in products such as Sherbet Lemons, Minstrels, M&Ms, Cadbury’s Crème Egg, Haribo Jelly Beans and Irn Bru.

It appears that free range eggs are becoming more popular as sales have overtaken those from battery farms for the first time. The British Egg Information Service said that 51% of eggs brought last month were free range whilst 41% came from caged hens; the remainder came from a mixture of barn and organic farms. Some supermarkets such as Waitrose and Marks and Spencer now sell only free range eggs.

Just five months after putting 200 lines of clothing on its Tesco Direct website the group has abandoned the service. Tesco say that they only intended to sell clothing online for a trial period but will not say whether the service will resume.

The Italian government has recalled buffalo mozzarella that has been linked to a dioxin contamination. The affected cheese comes from 25 producers in the Campania region near Naples. They have traced the farms at the source of the contamination and have destroyed their milk as a precaution.

Tesco has launched an inquiry to investigate claims that its overseas workers are paid as little as 8p and hour. There have been reports that job agencies have been charging migrants up to £1,500 in order to place them in a job at Tesco in Malaysia. The agencies also tell the workers that they will earn between £180 and £215 a month. However in practice, they find that they end up working 360 hours a month for only £20 to £50 after various deductions have been made. Tesco have promised to investigate the claims and have said they will make improvements if necessary.

The Sat Nav trolley could soon be coming to Britain. The device will help shoppers by guiding them around the store to the items they want to buy. It will also suggest recipe ideas based on the food that you put into them. The trolley is made by Media Cart in conjunction with Microsoft and could be in UK supermarkets by 2009. It will also be able to download your shopping list and plot the quickest route around the store, depending on what you want to purchase. The trolleys are fitted with a location device so they know where in the store, they can they work out what the best route is from the current location to the product the customer requires. It seems like an interesting idea, I wonder how well they work in practice.

Woolworths will introduce charges for plastic bags from May. They will charge 1p per bag in all of their high street stores and if the trial is a success it will be rolled out nationally. All the money raised from the bags will go to the charity Woolworths Kids First.

Marks and Spencer will start charging customers for carrier bags with the money raised going to an environmental charity. Customers will be charged 5p for every carrier bag. The move follows a successful trial at 50 of its stores in Northern Ireland and south west England. The trial saw the demand for bags fall by more than 70%. Chief executive Si Stuart Rose said that if this figure was replicated across the county the number of bags used could be reduced by 280 million a year.

Sainsbury’s will launch a new collection of clothes that are made from recycled plastic. The clothes are made from plastic such as soft drink bottles, fruit and vegetable packaging and meat trays. The new range will include shirts, trousers and skirts and will go on sale at half of the group’s stores later this year.

Asda will start large scale expansion this year in a plan that will open 22 new stores. The plans will create around 9,000 new jobs both in store and as part of its home delivery service. The first of the new stores will open at Andover in March. Other new stores will open at Dalgety Bay in Scotland and Brigend in Mid-Glamorgan. Several stores will also be extended as part of the plans.

Many of the UK’s large retail names are looking to stock lightweight bottles of wine and beer to try and offset the environmental impact of their businesses. The advances made recently in manufacturing technology mean that the amount of glass used in making a bottle can be cut by more than 30%. Tesco has signed up to sell more then 40 million lightweight bottles of wine this year and aims to have 25% per cent of all wine bottles it sells reduced in weight by 2010. This should save 72,000 tonnes of glass a year. Major brewers such as SABMiller and Scottish and Newcastle are also looking at introducing lightweight bottles.

Thousands of salmon products have been recalled from eight different supermarket chains because they may have been contaminated with diesel. The alert affects 50 types of Scottish salmon products including steaks, pies and fillets. The problem has been traced to the seafood company Marine Harvest which supplies fish to Morrisons and Young’s Seafood Ltd. The fish is thought to have been contaminated by diesel from a vehicle during transportation to a processing plant. The problem was detected when some customers complained of an unpleasant white spirit like taste. The alert does not affect organic salmon.

In a huge crackdown on underage drinkers the supermarket chain Morrisons will ask all its customers to prove they are over 21 before it will sell them alcohol. The new measure will be put in place in stores in high risk areas and will affect all customers with no exceptions. So whether you are 21 or 80 you will need to produce proof of age. The measures seem a little extreme and whilst it might be hard to guess a younger persons age, most people can tell that a pensioner is old enough to buy alcohol.

You will soon be able to buy milk in plastic bags instead of the more common plastic bottle. Waitrose will abolish plastic milk bottles to help reduce landfill and also save the energy that is used in their manufacture. The new bags are made of biodegradable plastic so can be recycled. Currently over two third of milk is sold in plastic bottles, with Britons consuming 180 million pints of milk a week.

Sainsbury’s have withdrawn a promotion that put the price of a pint of cider as 26p. The special deal started two weeks ago and offered the own brand Basics cider for just £1.20 for two litres. MP John Pugh had criticised Sainsbury’s for lacking social responsibility. There have also been concerns that cheap supermarket deals are fuelling a binge drinking culture.

Several of the UK’s supermarkets have announced they will phase out the sale of battery eggs. The decision has come because of consumer concerns over the impact of cheap food on animal welfare. Sainsbury, Morrisons and the Co-op will phase out the sale of eggs from battery hens. Marks and Spencer and Waitrose have already stopped selling eggs from battery hens. Sainsbury expect to end the sale of eggs from battery hens by next year. The Co-op has similar plans and Morrisons will phase them out by 2010. Tesco are reducing the shelf space for eggs from caged hens but have not yet announced a ban.

Despite often being unhealthy ready meals are still very popular. In fact sales of ready meals have trebled in the past decade. Sales of Chinese, Indian and Thai meals have risen within the past five years with fast food sales growing by 73% between 1995 and 2005. Despite this more than 60% of people surveyed still cook at least one meal a day from scratch.

Peterborough council will start charging supermarkets for recovering abandoned shopping trolleys. Officials will fine the stores for any trolleys that their staff have to collect. They believe that this new scheme will encourage supermarkets to improve security for their trolleys and provide a better collection system.

I read this article the other day that suggests the chicken you buy from the supermarket could actually be months old. It suggests that a lot of poultry sold in supermarkets is actually imported from places like Brazil and Thailand and can often be weeks or even months old. The article also suggests that meat in products like ready meals could have been thawed and frozen several times. I find this particularly worrying as I tend to buy meat and then freeze it to use later in the month thinking it is fresh. I am starting to wonder if I am putting my health at risk through relying on the supermarkets to provide me with food that is fresh. The Food and Farming Minister is now backing a campaign to clarify the labelling rules so that customers do not buy a product made from thawed meat that they think is fresh.

Tesco are about to expand in the US with the opening of 1,000 stores. They have already opened 15 of its Fresh & Easy stores and plans to open another 200 outlets by 2009 before expanding even further.

In a recent report carried out by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) Asda came bottom for animal welfare. The supermarkets were scored out of five based on a range of categories from transport and slaughter of animals to fish farming. Marks and Spencer won the compassionate supermarket award for 2007 with Waitrose coming second.

I read this article that suggests that groceries ordered online have a shorter shelf life than those brought in store. A survey conducted by Which? found that on average the best before date was a day earlier for good brought online. They tested four different supermarkets buying the same 10 items in store as they did online. The researchers brought goods from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Waitrose. They found little difference between the four supermarkets.  The supermarkets have questioned the accuracy of the research. Personally I purchase my shopping online every month and have noticed that some items have a short shelf life.

In his first major speech on the environment Gordon Brown has suggested introducing cash incentives for retailers who offer green alternatives to plastic carrier bags. One idea is to cut the VAT on long-life carrier bags to give retailers a financial reason to switch. He hopes that this would encourage to the elimination of single use bags in favour of longer lasting alternatives.

If you need a new tuxedo but don’t have a great deal of cash you might want to head down to Asda. They have recently introduced a tuxedo that retails at £35. It is pre Christmas special and is on sale as part of the supermarkets George range. If you need a shirt and bow tie you can purchase those separately for an additional £8. Bargain.

The price of bread has hit an all time high with experts warning that the era of cheap food could be coming to an end. Bad weather such as the flooding in August has contributed to the rises. The average bread price is now £1.12 per loaf.

More than 90% of Londoners back a plastic bag ban. During a consultation carried out by London Councils around 60% of people supported a complete ban with proposals to introduce a 10p charge on bags also being popular. The survey ran for six weeks and covered 2,000 people. 58% of people wanted a ban on disposable shopping bags, whilst 65% thought the action should only apply to plastic bags.

I brought some Pollack today for the first time and was surprised at how tasty it was. I made a light batter and put it in the deep fat fryer for around 10 minutes. It turned out really well with a light crispy batter and perfectly cooked fish. The taste is similar to cod but I noticed the fish had less bones. I will definitely be buying this on a regular basis.

Marks and Spencer are going to introduce a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags. The move follows a trial in Northern Ireland which led to a 66% reduction in the number of plastic bags used. It will begin with a trial in the South West of England starting from February and will include the company giving a free bag for life with each transaction for three weeks before the trial starts.

Its bad news for pizza lovers as pizza costs are set to rise. The cost is due to the rising cost of mozzarella which has soared by 50% this year. It is likely to add around 50p to the cost of a standard £10 pizza. The rising cost is not just limited to mozzarella but also affects other cheese including cheddar.

My local Tesco have stopped making carrier bags freely available at the checkout. I was aware that they were bringing this measure in and fully expected to have to pay for the carrier bags after I forgot to take my bag with me. I was quite surprised however, that the bags are still free, the only difference is that you now have to ask the checkout assistant when you need a bag. I’m not really sure this will deter people from using the free carriers bags, it seems like a half measure to me.

Asda and Makro have issued a recall of lamb because of fears it might contain traces of drugs. The affected meat was distributed by Welsh County Foods based in Anglesey. The affected meat could cause sickness if eaten.

I was reading this article that suggests around 40% of supermarket packaging cannot be recycled and ends up in landfill sights. This does not really come as any surprise to me. I recycle all of my bottles, cans, paper, cardboard and any food waste that can be composted. In addition any meat waste gets fed to four grateful cats. These measures have meant that the waste that actually goes in the bin for collection is greatly reduced. The problem is that the remaining waste consists mainly of plastic trays and shrink wrapping for which there are no recycling facilities in our area. This article suggests fining firms that use too much packaging, which seems like a good idea to me. I would be happy to buy the same product in packaging that could either be recycled or composted but it’s up to the supermarkets to address the issue.

Tesco is to start transporting some of its goods by canal in order to take some of its lorries off the road and cut carbon emissions. They will use the Manchester Ship Canal to move crates of wine from the Port of Liverpool. The service will include three journeys a week and move an estimated 600,000 litres of wine. Currently the wine arrives in the UK at various ports and is driven to the bottling depot at Manchester. Tesco is now looking at transporting other goods by water.

Tesco has had to suspend its property sales after the Office of Fair Trading ruled it was acting as an estate agent and would need to abide by the relevant laws. The site was launched in July and offered customers the chance to sell their home for £199. They have offered a full refund to all their customers and are now considering launching a full online estate agency in the future.

John Lewis is branching out into the grocery business with the opening of a food hall in the basement of their Oxford Street store. It is designed to cater for local workers and shoppers and is part of the stores £64m makeover. John Lewis has linked with Waitrose to launch the new department, which if successful could also be extended to other locations around the country. The store targets the increasing market for premium food and will have an in-store bakery with 40 different types of bread, over 109 lines of fish on its fish counter and 115 cheeses half of which are British. And if you fancy a bottle of champagne you will have more than 80 to choose from. It sounds great.

Campbell’s condensed soup, famous for its red and white label is to be rebranded. It will now be called Batchelors condensed soup and will carry the slogan “Formerly Campbell’s. Same great taste.” The soup has to be rebranded due to the fact that the brand name expires in 2008. When Premier foods brought the Campbell Soup Company, they did not purchase the brand as well. The recipe of the soup will remain unchanged. The Campbell Soup Company will still produce Campbell’s Condensed Soup but are not allowed to sell the brand in the UK for another five years.

Tesco have been selling New Zealand lamb packaged as British Lamb. One customer brought a product labelled as British slow cooked lamb shanks only to find when she opened the packet that the small print described them as tender lamb shanks of marinated New Zealand lamb. New Zealand lamb is around half the price of British lamb, so it seems this is a cost cutting exercise by Tesco. Tesco said the meal was described as British to indicate the type of cuisine rather than the origins of the ingredients. This seems a rather poor excuse for misleading packaging.

You might find the price of your Christmas dinner will be more like year after turkey farmers have announced they will need to increase their prices. The move comes because there has been a huge increase in costs recently, with the price of poultry feed going up from £181 a tonne to £240 a tonne. This increase is likely to put around 10 to 20% extra on the cost of your Christmas turkey.

If you are trying to eat healthier food but feel you need a bit of help you might want to try mysupermarket.co.uk In addition to their price comparison service they have now launched a service that allows you see nutritional information about your shop including the calories and fat and salt content. It then asks you if you want to switch any of the foods that are high in calories for a lower calorie alternative. They claim that using the service could knock around 4,000 calories off a families consumption.

Tesco are to launch a comparison website called tescocompare.com. The website will allow users to compare insurance from a range of providers. Whilst initially geared towards car insurance, the website will also cover other financial services such as mortgages, homes loans and credit cards in the future.

Primark have been fined £15,000 for selling tops that breached safety regulations. The hooded tops have cords that run through the neck. Tops that have free running neck cords were banned in 1976 after several fatal accidents involving the cords getting caught in play equipment. The judge also ordered the seized tops to be destroyed.

Mars has issued a recall of some of its products after small pieces of rubber were found in them. The affected sweets include milk chocolate Maltesers with best before dates between 16 December 2007 and 6 January 2008 and revels in bags pouches and pots with dates between 16 December 2007 and 13 January 2008. Customers are being asked to return the packs for a full refund. Packs should be returned to: Maltesers Consumer Care, Unit 1, Hudson Road, Melton Mowbray LE13 1BS.

Tesco has just started selling a digital set top box for £10. They claim it is the cheapest model on the high street. The box is manufactured by Techwood and offers 40 Freeview digital terrestrial TV channels and some radio stations.

The custard cream has been voted Britain's favourite biscuit in a recent poll. Nine out of ten people named it as their favourite. Secons place was the bourbon, with the cookie and ginger biscuit coming much further down the list. Personally I have never liked custard creams, what are people thinking?

Waitrose has issued a recall of some of their smoked salmon products because they contain high levels of listeria. The products affected are Waitrose Smokes Salmon Parcels and Waitrose Poached Salmon Terrines dated up to the 28th August. It was found during routine testing that the levels of listeria in the products were above the permitted levels. It is thought the problem is isolated to a few hundred products. Customers have been advised to return them for a refund.

Tesco is to enter into the garden centre business after winning a bid for Dobbies. The Scottish based chain currently has 21 outlets. The Dobbies brand will be retained but it is likely the garden centres will start selling some Tesco products.

The price of a pint of milk is set to rise by 3p because of shortages. The shortages have been caused by the recent floods in the UK. Cattle have been affected because farmers have been forced to keep them indoors. This reduces the milk yield because it means the cows have to be fed on silage rather than on grass. Supermarkets are likely to pass the cost onto the consumer.

The Treasury Department is considering new labelling for alcohol in the US. The new rules would require companies to put the alcohol content, serving sizes and nutritional information on all alcoholic drinks. Everything from beer cans to wine bottles would have the new labelling. This kind of labelling is already widely used here in the UK, although it is currently not on every alcoholic drink.

You might think that you are picking the healthy alternative when choosing a salad for lunch but this article suggests otherwise. Some salads and pre-packed pasta meals could actually contain as much salt as a hamburger and chips. A noodle salad was found to have a shocking 4.4g of salt, that’s 73% of the recommended daily intake for an adult. The problem is that a lot of salads contain salty ingredients such as bacon, ham and cheese. In addition to this salt is often added to products when it is not really needed. If you were to buy a chicken Caesar salad in McDonalds, you would actually be consuming more salt than if you went for a Big Mac and fries. The ten worst salty salads are shown below. The information was taken from the Times Online website.

Ten worst offenders
4.4g 73%
EAT Thai noodle
3.7g 62%
Tesco tuna and sweetcorn pasta snack
3.5g 58%
EAT smoked mackerel superfood
McDonald’s crispy chicken Caesar salad with low-fat Caesar dressing
3.3g 55%
McDonald’s grilled chicken Caesar salad with low-fat Caesar dressing
3g 50%
EAT spicy chicken noodles
Morrisons chicken and bacon pasta Morrisons tuna pasta
Somerfield cheese and tomato pasta snack
Somerfield chicken and bacon pasta snack

Retailers in Manchester are to be trained how to deal with terrorist attacks. The training will involve simulations carried out by the fire service so that should the worst happen shop staff can be prepared.

The recent floods here in the UK are likely to have an effect on food prices. The prices of milk, vegetables and other food stuffs are set to soar as farmers struggle to cope with the floods which have ruined many crops. The pea harvest this year has been hit badly with more than two fifths of the crop being completely wiped out, that’s about 61 million bags of peas. Among other crops that are badly affected are potatoes which have seen the worst cases of potato blight for around 40 years.

Sainsbury’s will sell wine in recyclable plastic bottles as part of a trial to try and cut carbon emissions. The trial will include two of its label wines which will be bottled in the UK. I wonder where you recycle the plastic bottles. At the moment we have no plastic recycling facilities at all in our area and this makes up the bulk of our rubbish.

Plymouth and South West Co-op have been running a trial ban on carrier bags in some of its stores in Devon and Cornwall. The initiative is proving to be successful with plastic bag use being cut by 90%. Shoppers can reuse bags or purchase a corn starch bag for 5p. The scheme will now be extended to more shops.

A lady in West London has been scarred for life by an exploding vegetable kiev. She had prepared the kiev according to the manufacturers instructions. When she sat down to eat it, it exploded covering her in boiling liquid. Asda have said it is a isolated incident

The European Commission is looking to relax rules that currently stop farmers feeding animals on the carcasses of other animals. This practice was stopped seven years ago because of the links with BSE and the fact that it was widely spread by feeding the remains of infected cows to other cattle. Apparently the commission is going to investigate the safety of feeding pig meal to chickens and vice versa. The reason they want to reintroduce the practice is to save money, it is cheaper to feed farm animals on the remains of other animals rather than on expensive vegetable protein. Sainsbury's and Asda have already said they will not sell livestock fed on animal by-products. I know where I will be doing my meat shopping if the ban is lifted.

Tesco has started selling a bottle of wine that costs £100 per bottle making it the most expensive supermarket wine on sale. Made by Penfolds the wine is being sold in certain stores where there is demand for something more expensive that the usual supermarket wine. I would love to try it but its a little out of my price range.

Apparently this seasons must have bag is a £5 cotton bag sold by Sainsbury’s. The bag went on sale on Wednesday and was sold out within an hour. I find it hard to see what all the fuss is about. Still, people must really want this bag, a quick search on ebay shows prices of up to £195.

I saw this article on The Independents website about packaging on food. The article suggests that consumers are annoyed about the amount of packaging used by supermarkets and that if the supermarkets were to cut down on packaging it would increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. Personally I find excess packaging really irritating. Everything you buy in the supermarket seems to include plastic wrapping and as there is no way of recycling this, it all goes straight in the bin. We remove from our waste all the items to be recycled and all the waste that can be composted. The remaining waste is made up almost entirely of plastic packaging from the Supermarket.

I learnt today from an article on The Guardian that Tesco are going to invest in a scheme designed to help small dairy farmers. I have long been aware that the large supermarkets try to drive down prices as much as possible and whilst this is good for consumers it inevitably means that the small farmer struggles to stay in business when faced with this sort of pressure. I buy my milk direct from the dairy because they help to subsidise and support farmers. I also buy my fruit and vegetables from a local box scheme, not only to cut down on packaging but also because it offers farmers a fairer deal.

The scheme that Tesco is proposing will give direct supply contracts to 850 farmers meaning that the middle man is cut out and their profit is increased by 4p a litre, although the consumer will still pay the same for their litre of milk. In addition to this Tesco intend to launch a scheme called local choice where customers will have the choice to buy milk from smaller local farmer. On this scheme the customer will pay more for their milk, around 8p a litre extra but farmers will receive 23.5p on every litre of milk compared to the current 18p. The article states that currently farmers make a loss of around 20 a litre, so whilst these measures seem small they could go a long way towards helping smaller farmers.

It will be interesting to see firstly whether customers prefer to pay slightly more for locally produced milk and secondly whether the other large supermarkets follow suit. If successful perhaps supermarkets will start to source more goods locally. Personally I would rather eat a piece a fruit knowing it had been picked yesterday on a local farm, than one that had been shipped hundreds of miles and kept artificially fresh. One thing I have noticed since buying my vegetables from a box scheme is that they taste much better. Another thing is they don’t keep for weeks and weeks in the fridge. A lettuce from a supermarket will still be edible 3 or sometimes 4 weeks after you buy it, but this can’t be normal. If you grew it in your garden you would need to eat it within 3 or 4 days and then it would start to decay. It makes me wonder what the supermarkets add to fruit and vegetable to give them such an unnatural prolonged shelf life.

I read an interesting article in the Daily Mail about some of the tricks supermarkets use to make customer think they are getting a bargain. It has already been publicised that when Tesco recently ran a promotion on half price fruit and vegetables they had in fact raised their prices before reducing them. In fact they nearly doubled some prices before cutting them back to half price and advertising a huge 50 per cent discount prompting an investigation by trading standards. I wonder how many customers monitor prices so closely that they would have noticed this sneaky tactic. It’s very easy to pick up a product with a half price tag and just assume you are getting a great deal.
Tesco price link

Other tricks that supermarkets use to try and confuse the customer are things like reducing the pack size on items when they are running “buy one get one free” promotions. In other words you may get two packs of strawberries each of 225g but the normal pack size when the items are not on promotion could be 500g.

Many supermarkets also offer special offers or low prices on a few staple goods such as bread and milk. By making prices of everyday items cheaper customers may naturally assume that the supermarket will also have cheap prices on other groceries. Often the reality is that these cheap prices on staple goods are subsidized elsewhere by putting up the prices of other goods.

“Buy one get one free” deals may also seem like a really good deal and perhaps they are for the customer. However, the supplier often loses out here. Most of the large supermarkets have agreements with their suppliers that they have to cover the costs of these special deals rather than the supermarket themselves. Unfortunately this means that smaller suppliers are often squeezed out the market as they cannot afford the low profit margins often associated with getting their products into the supermarket.