But with many similar options available, how do you know which one is really the best accompaniment to your cheese and dips? 

Selection and voting

Water crackers, rice crackers and crackers featuring cheese, seeds, fruit and other flavourings are widely available at our supermarkets, but there’s something to be said for a plain cracker as the perfect vehicle for whatever topping you want to serve up to your guests.��

To compare the similar options available at our supermarkets, we asked our tasters to sample Arnott’s Jatz and Savoy, Mondelez’s Ritz and Aldi’s home-brand Eton cracker. 

All four are round, approximately 45mm in diameter, with the classic serrated edge and evenly spaced holes in the centre. 

����Vlog staff were asked to blind taste-test each option, cleansing their palates with water between each sample. After trying all four, they cast a single vote for their favourite variety.

And the winner is

In a clear victory, Aldi’s Eton beat out the competition, earning a whopping 48% of the vote. Ritz came second with 22%, followed by Savoy with 19% while Jatz scored last place with just 11% of tasters nominating it as their favourite.

The Aldi Eton cracker is also a winner on price. A 225g box costs just $1.49 compared to the $4 you’ll pay for the same-sized box of Jatz or Savoy. Ritz crackers are $3.50 for a 227g box.

In judging the options, more than one taster noted that the Savoy was more salty than the other options, which was a plus for some, though others found its saltiness was overpowering. 

The Ritz was described as too soft and crumbly, and one taster said it was better on its own, rather than as an accompaniment to cheese or dips. Jatz was described as having a nice, hard crunch, but the Eton was said to be “just right”.

What’s in your cracker?

While the listed ingredients in all of these crackers are similar, there are some notable differences. 

Ritz are made with fructose syrup, the Savoy uses golden syrup, and both Eton and Jatz use malt extract from barley. 

All options contain sugar, salt and baking powder. Eton, Jatz and Savoy crackers carry a two-star health rating, but the Ritz crackers don’t provide a rating.

Other ingredients you might find in these crackers include:

• herb extract and yeast (Jatz, Eton and Savoy)
• emulsifiers (Jatz, Savoy and Ritz)
• acidity regulators (Eton)
• food acid (Jatz)
• enzymes (Ritz).

The Ritz also contains added minerals (iron and zinc) as well as vitamins (riboflavin, thiamin and folate).

As some of our tasters noted, one cracker is much saltier than the others. The Savoy contains 848mg of sodium per 100g compared to 490mg, 497mg and 427mg per 100g in the Jatz, Eton and Ritz crackers, respectively. The Ritz cracker is the only one of the four not made in Australia, being manufactured in Indonesia.

Are Jatz and Savoy the same? 

While Arnott’s make both of these very similar crackers, they are not exactly the same. 

Savoy crackers were originally made by Melbourne baker, the Brockhoff Biscuit Company. When Arnott’s merged with this firm in the 1960s, they responded to Victorian consumers who wanted to keep their preferred variety and continued to make the Savoy.

The difference between the two crackers is minor. Apart from the difference in sodium (see ‘What’s in your cracker’, above), the ingredient lists reveal that while Jatz are made with malt extract from barley, the Savoy is made with golden syrup.��

The packaging is also very similar, as are the crackers themselves, though look closely and you’ll see the word ‘Savoy’ stamped onto one side of that variety. 

In terms of availability, you’ll mostly find the Savoy in Victoria and Tasmania, though it can be found in some independent retailers in other states. Jatz is available around the country.

The post Jatz, Savoy, Ritz or Aldi Eton: Which cracker tastes best? appeared first on ����Vlog.

����Vlog is a wonderful place to work for many reasons, but on some days it feels extra special. The day you see a message pop up on your screen informing you that “leftover Christmas ham is in the kitchen”, is one of those days.��

Cut to me, last December, elbowing colleagues out of the way to secure a top rated ham, driving home with 5kg of ham strapped into the passenger seat (it triggered the seat belt alarm), wondering what on earth to do with it all. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering the same thing post Christmas lunch, with a huge ham sitting on your bench, you’re not alone.

I’m here to share my tips and tricks for putting every last morsel to good use.

Gift it 

You can (and should) continue to spread the joy of ham with friends and family well beyond the 25th of December. Who doesn’t love getting to take leftovers home from a Christmas lunch? It’s arguably one of the best gifts you can receive during the festive season. 

I have fond memories of sitting in the back of the car on the drive home to Sydney after Christmas with my grandparents, my brother and I trying to quietly crack open a takeaway container of ham without alerting our parents in the front seat. These days, I continue the tradition by ensuring every friend and family member leaves my house with a container of ham. 

A word of caution to would-be ham recipients: wait to be offered said ham by your host, never assume leftovers are yours for the taking.

Next-day leftovers 

Ham is a great addition to many classic recipes that can be enjoyed in the weeks after Christmas –  soups, baked pasta, quiche, potato salad, scrambled eggs and omelets can all benefit from a healthy helping of diced ham. I have also found that it’s delicious in fried rice. 

Not a fan of dicing? You can go one step simpler and crumb thick sliced ham to make schnitzels or a cheese and ham toastie.

Freeze it 

Now, for my top tip – freeze your ham. But crucially, before you do, it’s best to dice it up and freeze it in thin layers so you can easily add it to your dish. 

Frozen ham can last up to 6 months in your freezer. Just wrap it up well to avoid freezer burn and make sure to use it all up once you’ve defrosted it (never defrost and re-freeze).

Make stock 

The ham bone is an often-overlooked part of the ham, but it is absolutely packed with flavour and minerals. You can pop it straight into a pot, let it simmer for a few hours and freeze the stock for later.

Or, if you’re feeling particularly lazy after a big festive lunch, just freeze the whole bone and make stock for soup later on. Either way, you’ll be grateful in 6 months time when you can relive a little taste of Christmas in the cold winter months.��

Get even

If the worst happens and you forget about your ham, returning to your fridge weeks later to find it has gone bad, fear not – there is one final way to put it to use. A friend of mine (who will remain anonymous) once shared a story from his childhood about an ongoing feud with a neighbour.

After Christmas one year, his mum decided she’d had enough. She grabbed their rotting ham, ran across the road, and hid it in his hedge. We do not, for the record, recommend this last option for legal reasons.��

Happy hamming.

The post How to make the most of your leftover Christmas ham appeared first on ����Vlog.

Regular ����Vlog readers will be familiar with shrinkflation – where a product gets smaller, but stays the same price or becomes more expensive.

Our investigations over the years have revealed how it’s being applied to everything from breakfast cereals and pet foods to Easter chocolates and Christmas treats.

But now a more subtle phenomenon is rearing its head.

‘Skimpflation’ is when, instead of making less of a product in order to save money, manufacturers change what they make the product with to achieve the same objective.

Skimpflating businesses will reduce expensive ingredients or components in favour of cheaper ones to produce a product that is the same size and retails for the same price, but is cheaper to make.

In the case of food, this shift to cheaper ingredients can affect the item’s nutritional value, resulting in an inferior or less healthy product.

In October this year, , revealing almost 50 products whose main or characterising ingredients appeared to have been reduced.

����Vlog supporters get involved

Skimpflation is hard to spot, but the prospect of paying the same for an inferior product has motivated ����Vlog members and supporters to share their own examples of products they suspect have undergone skimpflation.

Consumers have come forward with granolas, yoghurts and toothpastes that have stayed the same price, but changed their ingredients.

Buyers of some of these items have expressed frustration that manufacturers changed their favourite products without informing them, leaving them paying the same price for products they say aren’t as good as they used to be.

Cereal offender

One product brought to our attention is a honey pecan granola sold by Aldi.

As recently as July this year, the supermarket was selling this version of the popular breakfast snack under its Goldenvale brand for $6.99 in 300g packets.

According to Aldi’s website, that specific product is no longer available.

It appears to have been replaced with another granola, which comes in almost identical packaging, in the same size and for the same price, but branded under Hillcrest, another of Aldi’s many home-brand labels.

These cosmetic alterations mask some significant ingredient changes.

The product has gone from having seeds as its main ingredient to dried coconut. The Hillcrest version still claims to be “seeds galore,” despite being only 33% seeds compared to Goldenvale’s 52%.

This honey pecan granola has also recorded a small drop in how much honey and pecan nuts it contains.

Capping off these changes, the product has also dropped one and a half stars from its health rating and ended up with a lower proportion of Australian ingredients.

The Hillcrest version isn’t impressing some Aldi shoppers, with several taking to Aldi groups on Facebook to complain the product tastes worse than the Goldenvale variety.

Rebranded yoghurt

Another food item whose ingredient changes haven’t been missed by eagle-eyed shoppers and influencers on social media is Jalna’s line of kids yoghurt pouches.

In April this year, Jalna was making these strawberry, vanilla and blueberry flavoured products with full-cream milk and each carried a prominent “Organic” certification.

Six months later, the pouches were still the same size and retailing for the same price at major supermarkets, but had swapped full-cream milk for skim.

Jalna also no longer describes the products as organic, swapping the claim for an “All natural” promise.

Changing toothpastes

It’s not just foods whose changing inputs are being picked up on by consumers.

One longtime user of Oral B products recently drew our attention to a range of alterations to the ingredients of two types of toothpaste.

A close look at the back of tubes of the Gum & Enamel Protect Daily Protection and Complete Defence System Deep Clean varieties reveals parent company Procter & Gamble recently shifted production of these products from Germany to China.

Information provided there also shows the new Chinese-made versions of the products have fewer and different ingredients than those made in Germany.

The new toothpastes still come in 110g tubes, but have recently attracted negative feedback in online reviews.

The longtime user who contacted us about the products said their prices have stayed the same, but argued the new versions were “lower quality”, with the new ingredients leading to unwanted changes in taste and texture.

Why are these products changing?

In response to questions from ����Vlog, the manufacturers of these products said they had changed their ingredients for the benefit of customers.

Aldi said it tries to bring shoppers “new and exciting flavours” and introduced the Hillcrest granola to “see what customers think”.

The company also told us the original Goldenvale granola will be back in its stores next year.

Jalna parent company Lactalis Australia said it switched to skim milk to better control the fat content of its yoghurt pouches. It said it dropped the organic certification of these products because, while some shoppers valued it, “for many it wasn’t a key factor in them choosing Jalna yoghurt.”

Neither did Procter & Gamble miss an opportunity to trumpet its services to consumers.

It said “the core motivation” of the changes to its toothpastes was “product performance and consumer benefit”, in particular to improve “foaming [and] brushing experience”.

Are they doing it to save money?

Manufacturers have often cited cost pressures when asked to explain other subtle product changes, such as shrinkflation.

After all, the costs of manufacturing inputs have seen some big increases in recent years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In September, agricultural lender Rabobank warned some food producers were using skimpflation along with shrinkflation to protect profit margins without losing consumers.

The bank said this is especially the case for makers of foods with ingredients whose prices have been volatile (such as chocolate), and that these manufacturers are embedding shrinkage and skimping into their long-term strategies.

The manufacturers we spoke to for this article either denied product changes were made to save money or declined to comment, but Aldi did say that it always considers cost when developing a new product.

Experts weigh in

Do the reasons manufacturers gave us for these product changes add up?

In the case of Oral B’s toothpaste, Associate Professor and dental health expert at Melbourne University Matt Hopcraft backed up Procter & Gamble’s explanation.

Following a review of the ingredient changes of both products, he said he suspected they were made based on customer feedback and to improve the user experience.

The changes to Aldi’s granola, however, drew the concern of Damian Maganja from the Food Policy Division of the George Institute for Global Health. Noting how the newer Hillcrest variety had double the saturated fat due to the influx of coconut and more sugars, he’s concerned longtime purchasers of the Goldenvale product could now be getting a worse-quality product without realising.

“The products look almost exactly identical in every way. If it’s a product you’re buying all the time, you’re probably not going to be checking the nutritional information … people are going to be getting this extra whack of unhealthy nutrients,” he says.

Maganja says he isn’t sure whether Aldi’s changes make the product cheaper to produce, but says Jalna may have saved some money by no longer certifying its yogurt pouches as organic.

Ingredient changes the latest subtle strategy

����Vlog is keen to hear of any instances of suspected skimpflation. 

“Consumers are bombarded by a range of tricks and traps at the supermarket that make it hard to get the best value for money,” says Andy Kelly, director of campaigns and communications at ����Vlog. 

“Skimpflation can lead consumers to unknowingly pay more for a worse-quality product and it can be even more difficult to detect than other tricks, like shrinking the size of the product while keeping the price the same.”

The government has recently been considering how to make grocery retailers display notices when a product has shrunk in size or volume, but stayed the same price. Kelly says this is a good idea, but is concerned manufacturers may be switching from this tactic – shrinkflating – to skimpflating their products instead, in order to preserve profit margins.

“The rules need to be designed to prevent companies gaming the system,” he says. “They shouldn’t be allowed to avoid detection by artificially decreasing, inflating or delaying price increases when a product reduces in size, or by slightly altering the ingredients or the name of the product to avoid detection.”

You can share examples of skimpflation with us by contacting campaigns@choice.com.au or the author.

The post Are these products being hit by skimpflation? appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Top tinned tomatoes in our test
• Cheapest tomatoes in our test
• Most expensive tinned tomatoes in our test
• Best Australian varieties
• Organic options
• Additives in tinned tomatoes
• How we test tinned tomatoes
• Our expert testers

Tinned tomatoes are a pantry staple that most home cooks will reach for at least once a week.��

But with so many options at our supermarkets, it can be tricky to choose the right one. Are Australian- or Italian-grown tomatoes best? Is it worth paying more for organic varieties? Are budget options just as good as more expensive products?��

To help make the decision a little easier, we conducted a blind taste test of 18 diced or chopped tomatoes to find out which tastes best.

Top tinned tomatoes in our test

Of the 18 chopped or diced tinned tomatoes included in our blind taste test, four received a ����Vlog Expert Rating of 75% or more, earning them recommended status.

Supermarket brands gave a good showing, with two of the recommended products coming from Coles (one a home brand, one from Coles phantom brand, Cucina Matese) and one from IGA’s Community Co brand. Mutti Polpa Organic – the most expensive product in our test – took the top spot.����

Mutti Polpa Chopped Tomatoes Organic

����Vlog Expert Rating: 80%

Price per 400g tin: $2.95

Experts say: “Rich red colour, chunky texture, thick juice. Pleasant flavour. Good consistency.”�� “Thick sauce, luxe texture, rich, vibrant, tomatoey flavour and beautifully balanced.”

Coles Cucina Matese Diced Tomatoes��

����Vlog Expert Rating: 76%

Price per 400g tin: $1.40

Experts say: “Pleasant tomato aroma.” “Balanced sweet and acidic taste.” “Good, smooth consistency. Well-rounded, balanced flavour.”

Coles Italian Diced Tomatoes

����Vlog Expert Rating: 75%

Price per 400g tin: $1.10

Experts say: “Pleasant appearance, nice, juicy consistency.” “Fresh, tomatoey aroma.” “Perfect for soups and chunky pasta sauces.”

Community Co Italian Diced Tomatoes

����Vlog Expert Rating: 75%

Price per 400g tin: $1.30

Experts say: “Bright red colour, fresh tomatoey smell.” “More saucy/liquidy (so perhaps better for soups, pasta sauces). Clean, fresh, tomatoey flavour.”

Cheapest tomatoes in our test

Our tests often show that price is not always an indicator of performance and that’s the case here. While the most expensive product in our test came out on top, some of the least expensive earned good scores.��

For example, the Coles Italian Diced Tomatoes was equal third-cheapest, but ranked joint third and were recommended.��

But unfortunately, there were also a lot of cheap products that underwhelmed our testers – including the three cheapest in our test (excluding the Coles product mentioned above which costs the same as the Woolworths product in this list).��

Aldi Remano Italian Diced Tomatoes

����Vlog Expert Rating: 58%

Price per 400g tin: $0.95

Experts say: “A bit watery, slightly bitter and acidic.” “Slightly metallic, with limited flavour.” “Pale colour, thin juice, slightly sour/bitter taste.”

Black & Gold Chopped Tomatoes

����Vlog Expert Rating: 48%

Price per 400g tin: $0.95

Experts say: “Very watery with a mild aroma.” “Bitter, sour flavour.” “Lots of discoloured green/yellow pieces.”

Woolworths Diced Italian Tomatoes

����Vlog Expert Rating: 63%

Price per 400g tin: $1.10

Experts say: “Flavour sour and bitter.” “Lots of green, large chunks.” Limited tomato flavour and tomatoes taste under-ripe.” Very acidic and bitter taste.”

Most expensive tinned tomatoes in our test

While the most expensive product in our test came out on top, some of the other pricier varieties didn’t score so well and were beaten by much more budget-friendly brands.

• Mutti Polpa Finely Chopped Tomatoes – $2.30 per 400g tin; ����Vlog Expert Rating: 69%
• Val Verde Diced Italian Tomatoes – $2.90 per 400g tin; 68%
• Coles Certified Organic Italian Diced Tomatoes –$1.70 per 400g tin; 64%
• Woolworths Macro Wholefoods Market Organic Diced Tomatoes – $1.70 per 400g tin; 73%
• Aldi Remano Italian Diced Tomatoes Organic – $1.59 per 400g tin; 65%

Best Australian varieties

While 13 of the 18 samples we tested were produced in Italy, the largest global exporter of canned tomatoes, we also included five locally produced varieties in our test.��

Woolworths Australian Diced Tomatoes ($1.30 per 400g tin) was the best of the bunch, with a score of 73%. Leggo’s Australian Diced Tomatoes ($1.80) was fairly close behind with a score of 71%.��

The Coles ($1.30) and Ardmona ($2.10) Australian Diced Tomatoes both earned 67%.��

Aldi’s Remano Australian Diced Tomatoes were the cheapest of the Australian products at $1.19 per 400g tin, but earned just 54% in our taste test.

Organic options

If you prefer to buy organic, you’re in luck: it was an organic product – the Mutti Polpa Chopped Tomatoes Organic – that took out the top spot in our taste test.

We also tested organic varieties from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. The Coles and Aldi organic products failed to impress, but the Woolworths Macro Wholefoods Market Organic Diced Italian Tomatoes ($1.70) received a score of 73% – falling just short of the recommended mark.

Additives in tinned tomatoes

Diced tomatoes and juice were the most common ingredients in the products we sampled. Six products contained nothing else, while the Mutti Polpa Finely Chopped Tomatoes contained only tomatoes and no juice, though it did contain salt. Leggo’s Australian Diced Tomatoes was the only other product containing added salt.��

Acidity regulators

Nine of the products contained citric acid or another unspecified acidity regulator. Acidity regulators are added to tinned tomatoes to lower pH levels, helping to preserve the product and extend shelf life. They can also be used to balance flavour and help stop the natural red colour of the tomatoes from fading to brown.��

Firming agent

A firming agent – calcium chloride – was added to three products: Coles Australian Diced Tomatoes, Aldi Remano Australian Diced Tomatoes and Woolworths Australian Diced Tomatoes.��

Firming agents help products retain their shape and texture to stop them from becoming mushy during the canning process. Calcium chloride also helps to retain pH levels, extend shelf life and reduce bacterial activity.

How we test tinned tomatoes

Products

We included products labelled as tinned or chopped tomatoes, excluding crushed and whole options. We chose products that are available nationally through at least one major supermarket chain.��

Tasting

Our experts tasted the samples blind (without knowing the brands) in a randomised order and rated the tomatoes on taste, texture, aroma and appearance.��

Scores

The ratings each product received were based on the scores for each aspect of the judging. The results were weighted as follows:

Flavour: 40%Texture: 20%Appearance: 20%Aroma: 20%

We recommend products with a rating of 75% or more.��

Our expert testers

Fiona Mair is part of our ����Vlog kitchen lab team and has a degree in home economics and dietary supervision. She also conducts and judges food taste tests and is a judge for the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show.��

Jane Bardell produces content for our ����Vlog insurance team, but also knows a thing or two about food, being an avid cook and baker. She holds a statement of attainment in sensory analyses for fine food judging.

Chantelle Dart is another member of our ����Vlog kitchen lab team whose expertise extends beyond her knowledge of our real-world cooking tests, having studied food technology, hospitality, business administration and event management.

Pru Engel is the ����Vlog audience and engagement editor and has enjoyed a long career working on some of Australia’s leading food magazines, where she honed her expertise in identifying quality ingredients and cooking with them.

The post The best tinned tomatoes in our taste test appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• The best tasting pastries
• Frozen mixed berry comparisons
• Cream cheese comparison
• What about price?
• Our berry pastry recipe

One of our challenges in surveying supermarket prices each quarter is selecting truly comparable products from each of the stores we shop at. After all, subtle variations between similarly named grocery items can affect the way they taste and perform.��

We consider ingredient lists, country of origin, pack sizes and a range of other factors when deciding what to include, but inconsistencies inevitably remain.��

As we often find in our appliance testing, price is not necessarily an indicator of performance, and it’s the same when it comes to food. Sometimes spending more means a better result, but sometimes the cheaper product will be better.��

In our most recent quarterly basket survey, we created a list of home-brand products from each of the four major supermarkets to find out which cost less. But it raised the question: are you getting good value if you spend less but the outcome is disappointing?

So, we decided to put some of those home-brand products to the test.��

The best tasting pastries

����Vlog home economist Fiona Mair created pastries using home-brand frozen berries, cream cheese and puff pastry from Aldi, Coles, IGA and Woolworths. We then asked 31 ����Vlog staff to take part in a blind taste test to determine which supermarket’s home brand products delivered the best outcome.��

Each taster tried a sample of the pastries made using home-brand ingredients from each of the supermarkets, then voted for the one they liked best. The winner, by a landslide, was Woolworths.��

This result was no surprise to Fiona, who assessed each ingredient while preparing the samples. She noted that the Woolworths pastry puffed up more than the other brands we tested. In contrast, she described the Black & Gold puff pastry from IGA as having a “greasy mouthfeel that coats the roof of the mouth”.��

In our blind tasting, the IGA sample received only two votes, compared to the Woolworths sample, which earned 20 votes. The offerings from Aldi and Coles also failed to impress, earning just four and five votes respectively.��

Frozen mixed berry comparisons

Each of the frozen mixed berry varieties varied slightly in composition.

Unlike the other brands, Woolworths does not provide the percentage of ingredients for each berry variety, instead listing blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries in that order.��

Aldi’s Orchard & Vine frozen mixed berries states ingredients comprising 34% strawberries, 30% blueberries, 21% blackberries and 15% raspberries.

Community Co frozen mixed berries from IGA are slightly different: 35% blackberries, 25% strawberries, 20% blueberries and 20% raspberries.��

The Coles mixed berries claim 37% blueberries, 33% strawberries, 15% blackberries and 15% raspberries.��

Did they meet these claims? In the single samples we assessed, there was very little correlation between the stated percentages of each type of berry and the actual quantities we recorded.��

• Only Coles came close to matching the claimed percentages for two of the berries (strawberries and raspberries).��
• Community & Co matched its claims for blackberries.��
• Aldi was within 2% of the claim for the raspberries in its pack.��
• Aldi and Coles had more blackberries than claimed.
• IGA had more strawberries at the expense of blueberries.

It should be noted that we only assessed one bag from each brand, so this is a simple snapshot. We would also expect to see some seasonal variation.

When assessing the products during the preparation of our pastries, Fiona found all packs contained some broken and squashed fruit, mostly the raspberries. The Coles product was the only one that contained sliced strawberries – all the others had whole fruit. She described the berries in each brand’s sample as sweet, with the caveat that the strawberries were a little sour.

Cream cheese comparison

As would be expected, all of the cream cheese products had similar ingredients, but once again, Fiona’s assessment found some noticeable differences.��

“The Aldi Westacre cream cheese was white, soft and creamy with a pleasant mouthfeel,” she says.��

On the other hand, Fiona found the IGA Black & Gold cream cheese to be very thick, difficult to blend and slightly yellowish in colour.��

“I could stand a spoon up in it – the texture was very stiff. It had an unpleasant mouthfeel, which left an unpleasant coating, and it wasn’t spreadable.”��

She noted that the Woolworths and Coles products showed slight separation.��

“The Coles cream cheese had a thick, creamy consistency but was slightly gluggy on the palate,” says Fiona.��

“The Woolworths cream cheese had a slightly more sour taste but a creamy, soft texture with a pleasant mouthfeel.”

What about price?

When we survey prices for our quarterly grocery basket surveys, we shop the way you would if you were buying ingredients for a particular recipe, so if the preferred item isn’t available, we buy the next cheapest option.��

That means we often end up with averaged prices that vary from the price you might find when you visit your local store. Therefore, for this article, we’ve included product prices sourced from online data gathered in early September.

On that basis, the home-brand items in this taste test cost the most at Woolworths and Coles (where prices were identical) followed by IGA and Aldi, which was cheaper than IGA by just one cent.

Our berry pastry recipe

Ingredients

6 sheets of supermarket puff pastry, thawed

2 x 250g tubs cream cheese, softened

2 cups or 500g frozen mixed berries

1 tbsp cornflour

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon rind

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 egg yolk, whisked

Pure icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C fan forced, with shelves placed in positions 1 and 3.����
2. Pour berries into a sieve and let thaw and drain for at least 1 hour.
3. Once thawed and drained, place into a bowl and add 1 tbsp of the sugar and the cornflour. Allow to macerate for 30 min.
4. Place cream cheese into a bowl, add the other tbsp of sugar, along with lemon juice, lemon rind and vanilla. Using a hand mixer, whisk until light and fluffy.��
5. Cut each pastry sheet into six rectangles and score around the edges approximately 1 cm in from the edge.��
6. Place pastry 3 cm apart onto a lined baking tray.
7. Spread 1 tablespoon of cream cheese filling into the centre of the pastry, add 2 tbsp of berries, draining any syrup.��
8. Brush the edges with the egg yolk.��
9. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the base is firm and crisp.��
10. Once removed from the oven, sieve over the icing sugar.

The post Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA home brands in fruit pastry bake-off�� appeared first on ����Vlog.

If your much-anticipated treat turns out to be a fizzer, it can really put a dampener on your day – after all, what’s the point of an indulgence if it’s a disappointment?

That’s why we tend to stick to our favourite brands and products – we know exactly what to expect when we open the pack, and we know it’ll hit the spot every time.

Arnott’s is one of those tried and trusted brands: it’s been around since the 1800s and is responsible for many iconic favourites such as Tim Tams and Iced Vovos.

After years of successful biscuit-making, you’d assume that Arnott’s has choc chip cookies nailed, but how do they actually stack up against other brands?

Surprisingly, not as well as you might think.

Prepare to have your cookie-craving mind blown: you don’t have to stick to the well-known brands to get your fix of perfectly crunchy, biscuit-y bliss. You can actually pay less for a tastier treat.��

(That means you can eat more of them, right?)

We’ll tell you which cookies to put in your biscuit jar, and which to leave on the shelf.

How we found the best choc chip cookies

We set three experts the difficult task of blind tasting 22 different choc chip cookies (tough gig, we know).��

They didn’t know which was which, so couldn’t be swayed by branding or packaging.��

They judged each cookie on its own merits, assessing things like flavour, texture, aroma and appearance, giving a score for each aspect.

Each cookie’s Health Star Rating was converted into a percentage; this then made up 10% of each cookie’s overall score. (Although we know people don’t exactly eat cookies for their health!)

The results of our taste test might surprise you – and perhaps change your shopping habits.

Are Arnott’s chocolate chip cookies the best?

According to our expert judges, no.

In a shock turn of events, the well-known biscuit brand didn’t even make the top three, being ousted by – shock horror – supermarket home-brand cookies.

Turns out you don’t need to buy based on brand to get the best bikkie.��

So how did the Arnott’s cookies score?��Not as well as you might expect.��

The budget bikkies that beat Arnott’s

If taste is everything (and let’s be honest, it is for most of us when it comes to treats), then one unassuming supermarket cookie takes the biscuit: Coles Ultimate Cookies 40% Chocolate Chip.��

Coles’ cookies scored 84% in our taste test, and only narrowly missed out on the top spot overall because of their low Health Star Rating of 0.5. (The cookies that took out the top spot have a 1.5 Health Star Rating).

While your doctor might not be a fan of these, your tastebuds definitely will be. And at 19 cents a cookie (compared to 24 cents a pop for Arnott’s), your budget will be happy too.

Plus, they’re made from real dark chocolate chips – unlike Arnott’s and most other brands that use compound chocolate, which is made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa fats/solids.

Want more bikkie for your budget?

To get the best cookie for your coin, head to Aldi for its Belmont Signature Cookies.��

They beat Arnott’s in our taste test and will cost you just 22 cents a cookie, or $1 per 100g – the cheapest unit price (per 100g) of all the top scorers.

Like the Arnott’s and Coles cookies, they also contain 40% choc chips, but knowing that you’re getting the same chocolate hit for less might make them taste even better.

The luxe options

If you really want to treat yourself, you need to get out of that packaged biscuit aisle and over to the bakery, stat!��

Two of our judges’ favourite cookies overall are baked in-house at Coles and Woolies. They took out first and third place in our taste test. You’ll notice they cost a lot more per cookie than some of the options above, but they’re also significantly bigger – their price per 100g is only slightly higher than the Arnott’s cookies (Coles $1.83, Woolworths $1.77 vs Arnotts $1.61).

First place: Coles Dreams Crumb True New York Choc Chip Cookies

• ����Vlog score: 78% (Recommended)
• Price: $5.20/pack; $1.30/cookie

Third place: Woolworths Chocolate Chunk Cookies

• ����Vlog score: 75% (Recommended)
• Price: $5.50/pack; $1.10/cookie

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Home-brand frozen chips, ranked

While we often find in ����Vlog testing that cheaper home-brand products outperform their pricier branded counterparts, sadly this isn’t really the case on the frozen chip front – none of these own-brand straight-cut chips scored higher than 67%, so even if the price is right you may want to think twice before chucking them in your trolley.��

But if you’re dedicated to cutting costs by shopping own-brand, these are how the straight-cut options we looked at from each major supermarket stacked up.

1. Aldi Seasons Pride Super Crunch Chips (����Vlog score: 67%)

Of all the basic straight-cut supermarket own-brand chips we tested, this budget buy from Aldi scored the highest at 67%, and it’s also one of the cheapest products at 40 cents per 100g (that’s a tick for your grocery budget!)

But, although these chips scored higher on taste than other supermarket buys, they were scored slightly down on nutrition. A quick look at the back of the packet shows there are lots of ingredients besides potato that have been added, including salt, sugars and thickener, so keep this in mind if you like to avoid additives.��

Read the full review of Aldi Seasons Pride Super Crunch Chips.

2. Woolworths Essentials French Fries (����Vlog score: 66%)

While technically a skinny chip, these Woolies French Fries are a notable inclusion here as Woolworths doesn’t have am own-brand standard straight-cut chip (their Woolworths Australian Beer Batter Steakhouse Chips were ranked the best in our beer-battered chip category however).��

These fries score 66% and cost the same as the Aldi chips at 40 cents per 100g. Consisting of just two ingredients – 96% potato and 4% sunflower oil (without any of the additives we found in many products, including our Birds Eye winner) – this product received a nutrition score of 90% and a taste test score of 64%.

Comments from our taste testers included: “Nice structure, tastes of potato, good crispness”. While another said :”Somewhat crispy on the outside and soft in the middle”.

Read the full review of Woolworths Essentials French Fries.

3. Coles Classic Straight-Cut Chips (����Vlog score: 60%)

Next-best chip off the block is from Coles, costing the same as the Woolies fries and with the same two ingredients (just 97% potato and 3% sunflower oil), but with a score of 60%.

These chips also received the same nutrition score as the Woolies fries (90%) and have lower than average sodium with 80mg per 100g serve (the average sodium content of the chips we tested was 118mg per 100 grams).

But Coles’ offering was outclassed by the Woolworths option due to taste. Our taste testers weren’t huge fans, describing the flavour of these chips as “mediocre” with “not much of an aroma”.

Read the full review of Coles Classic Straight-Cut Chips.

4. Black & Gold Straight Cut Potato Chips (����Vlog score: 59%)

Neck and neck with the Coles chips above, these IGA own-brand chips are ever so slightly more expensive than the Coles and Woolies options (40.5 cents per 100g), and scored 59% overall.

Although they have less sodium than the Coles and Woolies chips at 29mg per 100g, a quick perusal of the ingredients list shows they have added dextrose which is a type of sugar added to frozen chip products to help make them crunchy and stay crisp for longer.

Unfortunately, the dextrose doesn’t even seem to be doing a good job – one of our taste testers noted that they didn’t crisp up when cooked and had “limited flavour”.

Read the full review of Black & Gold Straight Cut Potato Chips.

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Arnott’s first introduced these iconic treats in 1990 and they’ve been a favourite lunchbox snack ever since. It’s no surprise then that Aldi’s Belmont brand includes a dupe of this much-loved product in their biscuit range.��

As with many Aldi products, the price point is appealing – the Teddy Tots are less than half the unit price of the original Tiny Teddies. But we wanted to know what the experts – kids – thought about the options.��

To find out, we compared chocolate, hundreds & thousands, and choc chip teddy bear biscuits from Aldi and Arnott’s and – in a blind taste test – asked a panel of ����Vlog staff and their children to tell us which brand tastes best.��

We also looked at nutrition so you can assess which one is best for your family.

Chocolate teddy bear biscuits compared

Taste test winner: Arnott’s Tiny Teddies

Our panel thought the Arnott’s Tiny Teddy Chocolate biscuits tasted better than the Aldi Choc Teddy Tots, with 11 out of 18 testers saying they preferred the flavour of the classic option.

We also noticed when comparing the appearance of these biscuits that the Aldi chocolate Teddy Tots were noticeably darker than the Arnott’s variety. It’s also worth noting that there was more sugar in Arnott’s Tiny Teddies – 6.4g per serving vs 4.8g in the Aldi Tots.����

Hundreds & Thousands teddy bear biscuits compared

Taste test winner: Aldi (Belmont Teddy Tots)

When it came to the colourful options from the national brand and the budget supermarket it was Aldi that won the day. 13 of 21 tasters told us they preferred the supermarket variety.

Choc chip teddy bear biscuits compared

Taste test winner: Arnott’s

The classic biscuit flavour of choc chip is paired with a teddy bear shape in this biccie variety from Arnott’s and Aldi. In this instance, it was the OG option that impressed our young testers.

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When you think beans, you probably think Heinz, but they’re not the only beans on the block. When we recently put 16 baked beans products to the test in our review, there were plenty of other brands that tickled our expert testers’ tastebuds.��

And in good news for those of us on a budget, bargain beans were among the favourites in our blind taste test.��

In fact, a number of budget beans out-scored well-known brands, and even ranked higher than the most expensive beans in our test – it turns out money can’t buy you taste!

Our expert taste testers rated each product on flavour, texture, appearance and smell, with flavour being the most important.��

Here are the brands that are the winners if you’re on a budget.

The cheapest, tastiest baked beans: Black & Gold��

In news that’s sure to blow your bean-loving brain, this no-frills brand from IGA actually topped our taste test with a score of 79%, snaring first place for taste along with SPC.��

It ranked higher than all the big brands, including Wattie’s and Heinz, and at just 65 cents a tin (that’s a tiny 15 cents per 100g), it’s also the cheapest in our review.��

It’s more than three times cheaper than SPC, and nearly six times cheaper than the most expensive beans we tested.��

Nutrition need-to-knows

Black & Gold beans are also second overall in our baked beans review, with a ����Vlog Expert Rating of 79%, just one percentage point behind the top scorer Wattie’s. (Taste is just one element of each brand’s overall score; nutrition accounts for 30% of the ����Vlog Expert Rating.)

Wattie’s is a whisker ahead of the Black & Gold product for nutrition, with a Health Star Rating (HSR) of 4.5, to Black & Gold’s 4. But an HSR of 4 is not to be sniffed at, so you can confidently buy Black & Gold knowing that it’s a healthy option for your household.��

Just be aware that Black & Gold has one of the highest sugar contents of all the beans we reviewed – which is not surprising given that added sugar can increase palatability. If you’re trying to reduce your sugar intake you may want to look elsewhere.��

“On balance they’re still a relatively healthy option, as they provide plenty of fibre and count as one serving of vegetables,” says accredited practising dietitian and nutritionist and ����Vlog food expert Shadia Djakovic.

“They’re good to serve occasionally as part of a balanced diet if you need a quick and tasty meal – especially if you’re trying to increase your kids’ vegie intake without them complaining.”��

The next-tastiest and cheapest beans: Coles

Bargain beans shone in our review, with two Coles products also performing strongly, scoring 77 and 76% and outperforming other better known brands.��

And surprisingly the cheaper of Coles’ two baked bean products actually came out ahead, with its Smart Buy product��(26 cents per 100g)��scoring one percentage point higher than its regular Coles Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (35 cents per 100g).��

So you can get more beans for your buck without skimping on flavour!

Other beans for lean budgets

We also reviewed baked beans from Woolworths’ and Aldi’s own brands, but unfortunately they just couldn’t match Black & Gold or Coles for taste.��

Aldi’s Corale baked beans were the second-cheapest in our line-up, but unfortunately didn’t impress our taste testers, who scored them just 64% for taste.��

And Woolworths’ own-brand beans were the next-cheapest but again didn’t do much for our testers’ palates, scoring 68% for taste.��

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On this page:

• Best baked beans
• Are baked beans healthy?
• Salt and sugar
• Cheapest baked beans
• How we tested

There’s so much to love about baked beans.

They’re incredibly versatile and are equally at home as a meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can liven them up by pairing them with a cheesy jacket potato, or fried eggs to create huevos rancheros. Or just keep things simple and eat them piled on top of buttered toast.��

We got people talking in the about how they eat their baked beans, and we discovered that it’s rare that they’re eaten alone. It seems people love adding baked beans to their toast, potato and eggs, and they’re also a popular jaffle filling.

The meals to be had from a humble can of baked beans can often be ready to eat within minutes of opening the lid, which is always a bonus.��

And of course, their low cost means baked beans are super easy on the hip pocket. No pantry cupboard is complete without a can (or three).��

So which store-bought baked beans are best?��We compare the price, ingredients, nutrition and country of origin of 16 baked beans products from Aldi, Coles, Heinz, SPC and Watties to find the healthiest, the best value, and more.

Best baked beans

Here are our top six recommended baked beans, based on taste and nutrition.

Watties Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce 420g

• ����Vlog Expert Rating: 80%
• Taste test score: 76%
• Price: 52c per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 4.5
• Expert comments: “Nice colour, whole, plump beans, rich looking sauce, smokey tomato flavour,�� and well-cooked beans.”

Black & Gold Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce 420g

• ����Vlog Expert Rating: 79%
• Taste test score: 79%
• Price: 15c per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 4
• Expert comments:��“Deep red colour, fresh aroma, balanced flavour and a nice balanced texture for the sauce and beans.”

SPC Baked Beans Rich Tomato Sauce 425g

• ����Vlog Expert Rating: 79%
• Taste test score: 79%
• Price: 52c per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 4
• Expert comments:��“Rich sweet red colour, smooth, rich and balanced flavour, beans are well-cooked, slight bite to it.”

Coles Baked Beans Smart Buy 420g

• ����Vlog Expert Rating: 77%
• Taste test score: 75%
• Price: 26c per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 4
• Experts say:��“Nice colour, whole beans, sage and tomato flavour, balanced, beans smooth and well cooked.”

Coles Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce 425g

• ����Vlog Expert Rating: 76%
• Taste test score: 74%
• Price: 35c per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 4
• Expert comments:��“Nice colour, whole beans, rich-looking sauce, sweet tomato aroma, slight bitter tang, beans a little firm.”

F Whitlock & Sons Killer Beans Fred’s Ballistic Tomato & Basil 420g

• ����Vlog Expert Rating: 76%
• Taste test score: 65%
• Price: 90c per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 5
• Expert comments:��“Nice homemade-looking beans, looks fresh, strong aroma and taste, beans have a good mouthfeel.”

Are baked beans healthy?

Essentially, baked beans are legumes in a tomato-based sauce. And it’s fair to say they tick multiple boxes when it comes to nutrition.��

For starters, beans/legumes are:

• a source of plant-based protein
• rich in quality carbohydrates, with a low glycemic index (for blood glucose control)
• a good source of B-group vitamins (especially folate), iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium
• full of dietary fibre (both the insoluble and soluble varieties)
• low in fat.

And the tomatoes in the sauce contain the antioxidant lycopene, which is actually more easily absorbed through processed tomato products such as baked bean sauce than in fresh tomatoes.

The more you eat the more you… what?

If you get an upset stomach from eating beans it’s likely because of compounds called fructans and oligosaccharides, which form part of the group of carbohydrates called FODMAPs.

If you’re overly sensitive to these compounds you’ll need to limit your intake of baked beans to avoid gut issues, but if you can tolerate them in moderation, consider including them in your diet as they certainly hit the nutrition mark.

One of your five vegie serves

As an added bonus, baked beans count towards the five serves of vegies we should be (and often aren’t) eating every day – half a cup (75g) is considered to be one serve.

Salt and sugar

Store-bought baked beans have a fairly consistent ratio of roughly 50:50 beans to sauce (although bean content does range from 46–51%). So what tends to make them more or less healthy is the amount of added salt and sugar in the sauce.�� For this reason, a few products stand out.

Least salt

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) states that anything with a sodium level of less than or equal to 120mg per 100g is low salt. Unfortunately, none of the baked beans we tested in this review are below this level.��

We also noted that products that made claims about having reduced or low salt didn’t necessarily have the lowest amounts.

The products with the lowest salt contents are:

• Just Organic Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce – 210mg per 100g
• Macro Woolworths Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce – 225mg per 100g
• SPC Baked Beans Salt Reduced Rich Tomato – 226mg per 100g

These products contain about 200mg less sodium than those at the top end of the scale, which is quite a significant difference, especially if you’re trying to reduce your salt intake.

Low sugar

All the baked beans we reviewed contain added sugar, but half of them are low in sugar, which FSANZ defines as less than 5 grams per 100g. F Whitlock & Sons’ ‘Killer Beans Fred’s Ballistic Tomato & Basil’ has the lowest sugar content, with 2.9 grams of sugar per 100g.��

High sugar

While food packaging doesn’t have to differentiate between naturally occurring sugars (such as the sugar in tomatoes) and added sugars, we used the FoodSwitch added sugar estimate to identify the products with the most added sugars. Combined with naturally occurring sugars, these two products each have a total of more than three teaspoons of sugar per serve:��

• Watties Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce – 6g total sugars per 100g
• Black & Gold Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce – 5.9g total sugars per 100g

Both these products rated highly in our taste test, which isn’t surprising considering how much added sugar can increase palatability.

Cheapest baked beans

• Black & Gold Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce – $0.15 for 420g can��
• Aldi Corale Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce –$0.24 for 420g can

At 15 cents per 100g – and less than $1 a can – the Black & Gold beans are the cheapest in our review. They’re also the third-highest rated by our experts, meaning they’re delicious, nutritious and affordable – which is great considering the rising cost of living. Although as noted above, they’re relatively high in sugar.��

Are baked beans gluten-free?

None of the baked beans in this test specifically had a gluten-free claim; 14 of the 16 baked bean products we looked at don’t specifically mention gluten (or gluten-derived ingredients) in their ingredient lists, and make no reference to gluten in their allergen statements. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gluten-free though, or safe for coeliacs.

Exceptions are Watties Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce, which contain wheat flour, and SPC Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce & Vegemite, which include barley and wheat in the Vegemite powder.

Highest proportion of Australian ingredients

• SPC Aussie Made Baked Beans Rich Tomato & Vegemite (48% Australian ingredients)
• SPC Aussie Made Baked Beans Rich Tomato (47% Australian ingredients)
• SPC Aussie Made Baked Beans Rich Tomato Salt Reduced (47% Australian ingredients)

SPC is the only brand to use any Australian ingredients. Heinz, Watties and F Whitlock & Sons baked beans are made in New Zealand, and other brands tend to be packed or manufactured in Italy using beans from the USA or Canada.

How we tested

We chose 16 traditional baked beans in tomato sauce products available in major supermarket chains nationally. We then set up a blind taste test where each product was tasted by experts, who gave a rating based on flavour, texture, appearance and smell.��

Not all characteristics in the taste test were treated equally, with flavour being the most important and weighted heavier, followed by texture, appearance and aroma. The ����Vlog Expert Rating, our overall score, is made up of the taste test score (70%) and the nutrition score (30%).

Meet the taste testers

Daniel Abou-Chedid has more than a decade of experience as a professional chef and consultant within the food industry. He’s been a cooking ambassador for kitchen appliance brands, delivered live culinary demonstrations across Australia for companies including Domayne and Westfield, and made guest appearances as a chef for P&O Cruises. As well as his consulting work, Daniel runs the onsite catering business Fork n’ Knife, which he established, as well as Gosford eatery At Baker Street.

Michele Walsh has worked in the baking industry for more than 30 years, starting as an apprentice and now working as a tertiary-educated professional in the vocational education and training sector, where she delivers training to apprentices and non-apprentices in retail baking and patisserie. She has more than 15 years of experience in judging, including the RAS Professional Bakery and WorldSkills trades competitions.��

Petr Valouch has more than 25 years of experience being a ����Vlog expert tester. A self-confessed baked beans lover, Petr was quick to volunteer himself for this test – a slight departure from his usual job testing whitegoods in our labs.

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