Originally Posted by Isambard Brunel:
“This is definitely true, but is also true to a lesser extent for bigger supermarkets. Sometimes, you'll go into Aldi and notice a product has a slightly different jar/wrapper/box/etc, and the contents look, smell and taste different. And the nutritional information has changed.
I'm not just talking about updating the imagery printed on a cardboard box, but the box itself physically changing in several ways.
Sometimes this coincides with the price going down, but often the price stays the same. Either way, it's a give-away sign that they've changed suppliers. If they just had the recipe altered to lower costs, the wrapper wouldn't also have changed to a different machine that folds a different kind of plastic wrapping in a different way, or a glass jar wouldn't have taken on a slightly different profile.
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Ah, I dated a food scientist for a while and.. I developed a hankering for having a spectrogram of Marmite on my wall. So she ran one off for me. And some day, I'll buy my own analytical lab for the dungeon.. But I digress.
She said best tell is from the ingredients & nutritional info. Changes to packaging or lable could just mean changes in factories, lines or branding. So there's been a big shift to flow wrapping even though it makes some stuff a PITA to open.
Quote:
“The sad thing is, they do this sometimes to knock the price down 5p, whereas I'd be much happier to pay 5p more to keep the old (and much better tasting) product. But that's consumerism - A mad, frenzied race to the bottom.”
Yup, and I'm a fan of Bill Hicks and blame marketing. Plus some outside interference like this brain fart-
http://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition...on_salt_en.htm
A common EU framework for salt reduction has been developed, describing a common vision for a general European approach towards salt reduction. The overall goal of the Common Framework is to contribute towards reduced salt intake at population level, in order to achieve the national or WHO recommendations.
So rather than people watching/checking their blood pressure and then cutting salt if it's high (assuming that was the cause), then nice bread, salted butter and Marmite sandwiches may be banned by good'ol Brussels. How bland.. But I think the anti-salt brigade's nobbled some foods already. Ready 'salted' crisps have artificial salt flavor instead of the lil blue salt-to-taste packets.. And I hate to think what a low salt Marmite or Patum Peperium would taste like.
Then as you say, there's sometimes a fixation on profits and brand over product. See the infamous 'Classic' Coca-Cola for more info. Take a classic taste, fiddle with it, be amazed at the negative reaction from your customers.. But then being product developer for Coke must be frustrating when millions want you to leave it alone. Change the taste and people go looking for alternatives, plus it's deceptive if done without warning. Like you, I'd rather pay a bit extra and keep a flavor I like than pay the same for something that now tastes rank.