Episode 4 Rip Off Food

Food - it's big business.

Each year we spend something like £5,000 per household on food and drink.

So the competition for your pound is tough.

We'll leave no shelf untouched in our quest

to champion you, the weekly shopper.

This is a series in which we'll be exposing the hidden rip-offs

and letting you in on the tricks of the food trade.

And most importantly, we'll show you how to be a smart shopper.

Welcome to Rip Off Food.

Today we're checking out supermarkets

and the true cost of convenience.

We'll be showing you why some special offers

aren't all that special at all.

Watch out - you might not be getting the special offer that you thought you were.

We pit bottled water against tap

to check out the real winner on value and taste.

I think it just had a bit of a crisper taste.

No! Really?

How the packaging on some of your purchases

could leave you wanting more.

-Oh, my goodness, it's like a third full.

-Absolutely.

The UK grocery market is worth over £160 billion,

and it's dominated by the supermarkets.

Special offers are a very common sight for consumers

as they peruse the goods on sale.

But what you may not realise is that some special offers

are not that special.

Now, in these times of austerity,

let's be honest, a discount will always attract our attention.

So when supermarkets put products on special offer, well,

it's only right that most customers take it for granted

that there is a bargain to be had.

-We're suckers for it. Aren't we?

-We are, yeah.

Every time I go shopping I'll look for what's on offer

and that kind of influences what I buy, really.

Yeah, anything you can get better value for,

I've no loyalty to any particular brand.

You sometimes find that the price is really exaggerated,

so the special offer is actually the normal price.

I'm always very cautious cos I don't know why it's a special offer,

what makes it cheaper now.

I mean, I'm always looking for a low price,

but if there's "Buy one, get one free" then definitely, yeah.

A 2012 survey by consumer champion Which?

followed the fluctuations of over 700,000 of prices

at supermarkets around the UK

between January 2011 and February 2012.

They described what they found as "dodgy pricing tactics"

because some of the special offers weren't what they appeared.

The supermarkets would like us to believe we are all getting a bargain,

but if you look behind the prices, if you look at the details,

watch out, you might not be getting

the special offer that you thought you were.

This is happening even though the Government introduced

a Pricing Practices Guide in 2010,

to stop consumers being misled by special promotions.

The guideline states that a product can only go on special offer

if the price has remained the same for 28 days before being reduced.

But Which? found that in some cases these rules weren't being followed.

The trick that came up time and time again

is the price of a product being whacked up just before

it was put on special offer, so it looks like you're saving a big deal

on the previous price, actually that was roughly the price

you would have paid a few weeks ago anyway, not so special.

One example the survey highlighted was a so-called special offer

on strawberries by online supermarket Ocado.

The fact is that the price of the strawberries had been

increased by 49 pence for less than two weeks

before it was reduced and put on special offer.

Clearly against the guidelines.

And then the special offer lasted for nearly three months.

Well, I don't think that's playing by the rules, do you?

The special offer price running on and on and on for weeks,

if not months, it's not special if it's the price

that it's on display for week after week after week.

Another example highlighted was an ASDA multibuy offer

of ten Muller yoghurts for £4 - that's 40p a pot -

while a single pot cost 61p.

So it seemed a good offer.

But directly before and after the multibuy offer period,

a single pot of Muller yoghurt cost only 30p,

which would have meant that ten pots cost £3.

Not such a bargain multibuy after all.

Which? found lots of examples of dubious offers

across all of the big supermarkets,

which in the main - they said -

were a case of genuine mistakes being made.

But not everybody buys that.

This looks systematic to us across lots of supermarkets.

They now need to clean their act up.

If they won't, then it's time for the Government to step in,

toughen up the rules and properly enforce them.

Otherwise it's consumers that will foot the bill, yet again.

Ocado told us that they are

committed to providing clear and accurate information,

and that, regrettably on this one isolated occasion,

this specific promotion did not explain their offer in the required detail.

They are committed to ensuring this doesn't happen again

and will continue to heavily monitor their processes accordingly.

We contacted ASDA, who said this was a rare mistake and that by and large

their systems ensure these sorts of instances are kept to a minimum.

The say that since the example we highlighted,

they've implemented a new checking procedure

across the entire ASDA grocery website, to ensure all price cuts

are triple-checked before they appear online.

And they've appointed an independent audit team

to monitor the prices displayed and remove any pricing errors.

Now, when you're out and about doing you shopping,

have you ever noticed how some things

have so much packaging around them compared to what's actually inside?

Over a third of the packaging found in a typical shopping basket

can't be recycled.

Much of the food we buy has layers and layers of wrapping

that go straight in the bin.

So could manufacturers improve on this,

and in the process make the size of the actual contents

obvious at a glance?

I'm meeting Mark Shayler, who has 18 years of design experience

in improving product packaging.

I have to tell you, as a consumer I get so frustrated

by layer after layer after layer of paper,

particularly when you buy something in a cardboard box.

It seems to be like this size and the box is this size,

so you must come across this all the time.

All the time. We see it as an issue that is absolutely huge,

and in reality we've got a lot better at it,

but there's still some things to do.

If I'm being really honest, there are times that I'm buying something

for somebody else and I think,

"Gosh, that looks really good in all that packaging",

so I'm a bit of a sucker for it sometimes.

We talk about different occasions, different opening occasions,

and, I mean, Apple have made a whole science

of the seven-second reveal of the iPhone,

when you pull the box apart there's a little bit of suction,

and that's part of the pleasure of the product,

but for everyday products maybe we're not really interested

in the seven-second reveal when we just want to open a can of sardines.

So, Mark, you can only talk about it for so long,

we've got now to look at our shopping.

This is going to be a good lesson for me in packaging.

Well, we've got here a box of chocolate treats.

Open the clip, and straightaway...

Oh, it's only half-full.

Well, you're managing disappointment there, aren't you?

That's not really good enough. We can drop the size of this

appropriately to the weight of the product.

When we contacted Gu they said that their packaging gives

a clear indication of the weight of the product,

and they pride themselves on the honesty

and integrity of their ingredients and manufacturing process.

Other examples - this is a really interesting one.

I was struck by the fact that the bag felt half-full.

When you open them up, straightaway...

-Oh, my goodness, it's like a third full.

-Absolutely.

-That is ridiculous.

-Interestingly, it's an aluminium foil as well.

It's used to stop sunlight coming through,

which then stops the product becoming rancid.

Yeah, it's good for preservation.

It's great, BUT you don't need it on the outer,

because inside you've then got five packs

that are all aluminium-foiled anyway.

Now, I'm going to open this one. What I do get in my yoghurty thing

is like a packet that's barely a third full of anything.

Absolutely, and I can't see a reason for it.

Are there any legal sort of rules and regulations about

maybe misleading, you know,

in terms of the yoghurty sweets or any of it?

-Every single one is labelled correctly.

-Yeah.

So even the yoghurt ones, it says, "5 x 25g",

however it's written really small, very near the seal,

it's not the thing that leaps out at you.

The thing that leaps out at you is the brand...

-And the size of the bag.

-Exactly, yeah.

So that's the other message - if you want to really shop wisely,

you've got to read the labels carefully.

But the labels could be much easier to read.

Now that's another story.

The manufacturers of Yu! Fruit told us that they're a young company

focused on delivering snacks to a wide range of consumers,

and that the reason they use aluminium foil

is that they deliver safe, high-quality snacks

from beginning to end of life.

They say this is important to them

as many of their consumers are children.

They say they did have smaller packs and want to move back to them

when they can make the necessary changes to their operations.

They add that the description of the contents is clear

and easy to locate on the front of the pack.

Now, oversized packaging is one thing,

but what if the packet stays the same size, but the contents shrink?

And then if the price stays the same - that's a shocker.

In April 2012, Which? reported that over the last year

certain products had reduced in size.

Well, here are some examples, we've got Branston Pickle.

Now, this was a 405g jar before, it's now 360g,

that's a 45g reduction, and it's on sale for exactly the same price.

That's 12% less for the same price,

so does the new bottle look noticeably smaller?

In terms of size, no, they look relatively similar.

Slight packaging difference,

but apart from that I don't see much.

The size? Oh, yeah, that one is a little bit smaller,

360g as opposed to 405g.

That's inflation, isn't it? That's pulling the wool over people's eyes.

Cheeky.

And they found products that shrank where the price had gone UP.

Here's another example of Birds Eye Crispy Chicken,

this was 360g, it's now down to 340g.

It was on special offer for £2,

now, at this smaller weight,

it's on sale for £3.85.

So we've got 20g less

for nearly £1.85 more.

In fact, the only thing that hadn't changed was the size of the box.

I think if they decrease the size but keep the box the same size,

that's pretty deceptive actually.

Part of the reason I don't buy thing like this is

because I can't see what the size is,

so I'd rather buy something where I can see it clearly.

I think that's a little bit out of order.

People go for their brands cos they remember the picture

and they don't necessarily look at the grams and stuff.

It's not value for money, especially if prices continue to go up as well.

Blackcurrant jam, used to be a 454g jar, it's now a 400g jar,

that's an eighth smaller. It's exactly the same price,

so you're paying the same money for a jar that's 54g less in weight.

So we asked the food manufacturers to comment.

Streamline said that it was part of a redesign and relaunch strategy

and an alternative to a price increase in the face

of a huge increase in raw material costs.

They also said that, historically, jams were sold in pound jars,

454g, however many consumers felt these were too large.

Birds Eye said they're facing steep rises in commodity prices,

and have made a small reduction in the weight

of their Crispy Chicken in order to keep prices low.

Whilst it is retailers that set prices in store,

they are working closely with them to devise promotions

that will benefit their consumers and offer value for money.

Branston Pickle told us they have no control

over the retail prices the consumer pays for their product.

So, some packages are shrinking.

But one thing that certainly isn't getting any smaller

is our love of bottled water, which can come with an A-list price tag.

Like this 750ml bottle of water - a mere £5.95 from Harrods.

To be honest, I'm a great fan of this convenient product,

along with many other people, it seems.

I just prefer the taste of bottled water.

We drink bottled water.

Bottled water.

If I buy bottled, I buy sparkling.

Last year, we bought more than two billion litres of the bottled stuff.

It's a market worth over £1.6 billion.

Now, I assume that bottled water is healthier

and tastes better than tap water.

I think many of us feel we're making the right choice.

But I'm wiling to have my mind changed.

Here at Thames Water Treatment Centre, I have to tell you,

they know a thing or two about providing us with tap water,

and I'm just about to meet the man in charge.

I must warn you, though, I'm no pushover,

and I'm certainly not going to let one of their senior managers,

Jerry White, bamboozle me with statistics or spin.

-Jerry? Hi, how are you? Nice to see you.

-Hi, nice to meet you.

-Big plant, I knew I'd find you somewhere.

-Yes, indeed!

Here we are, absolutely surrounded by water.

Now, I have to admit, I'm looking down here at the water -

it is muddy, it is filthy-looking, it is disgusting, if I may say so.

In a way I can understand why a lot of people might say,

"Oh, I think I'll have the bottled stuff, it's a bit better."

So tell me about just where you get all this water from.

We're obviously taking it out of the river here, from the Thames,

we take water from the ground as well, from the ground water boreholes.

But most of the water from the ground ends up in the river,

and then as it flows down we'll take it out at certain points,

and yes, it does come back into the river from a sewage treatment works,

and the site here treats around about 150 million litres of water a day.

-A day?

-A day. And that's enough for about a million people.

So what's the time span from gunge here to tap?

Well, it'll be through the process here within a matter of hours.

So what you're trying to tell me is if I have

a little pee here, I could be drinking it

out of that end tap before I go home.

LAUGHING: You could be, Gloria.

Would you show me round the rest the rest of the plant,

-particularly where you purify it?

-Yeah, absolutely.

I think Jerry's going to have to do better

if he wants to convince me to drink the end result of that water.

And the first stage of the process is not reassuring.

Ooh, bad. I mean, how do you classify this mangy-looking vat?

Well, this is where we've added an iron coagulant,

which makes all the bits of the dirt

and soil stick together in the water,

and then you bubble air up through it,

and all the air floats things to the surface,

and it sticks together

and you get all this sort of horrible foam on the top here.

But underneath that layer of foam, there's nice clean water.

I have to tell you, it is vile looking.

It's likely to put me off drinking tap water for life.

This is really the first stage of the filtration.

So, here goes.

Oh, yes, so it actually then, Jerry,

-just sort of skims it all off.

-Pushes it across, yes.

-And quite quickly as well.

-Yeah, it'll move quite quickly.

Jerry says it's air bubbles that makes the water

that milky green colour.

Uh-uh, looks more than air in that murk to me.

Now, Jerry, what exactly happens in the ozone gallery?

-Sounds very grand.

-Well, we take liquid oxygen,

O2, and we put an electrical charge through it to create ozone.

Similar to what you get in the atmosphere.

If you look in here, you'll actually see the bubbles of ozone

rising up through the liquid oxygen.

-So what exactly is happening?

-It breaks down pesticides,

removes organic, dissolves organic matter.

-Most efficient way of doing it?

-Yeah.

Oh, so after this process, then what happens next?

We'll go and see what happens in disinfection.

Disinfecting, I like that bit I'm a bit of a disinfectant freak.

-Are you now?

-Yes.

Well, the water's certainly looking cleaner.

We do even more samples on tap water than are currently conducted

on bottled water, so for me, I think it's a very safe bet.

I personally am always a bit staggered when I see people

buying cartons and bottles of water in the supermarket

when I know that it costs such little,

and it's also treated to such a high standard.

So let's get to the bottom line of the cost difference

between tap water and bottled water.

The water from here costs 0.1p per litre, that's a tenth of a penny.

Let's see how that compares to the cost of bottled water on the high street.

Kinvara Carey is General Manager of the National Hydration Council,

which represents the bestselling UK brands of bottled water.

In the UK, 90% of the bottled water is actually a natural mineral

or spring water. And natural mineral and spring water

must come from a natural, protected and identified underground source,

which also means it's bottled at source,

and that it must be safe to consume without treatment.

The average cost of bottled water in the UK is just under 40p a litre,

and that of course includes VAT as well.

It's the retailers that set the prices, though.

Well, at an average of just under 40p a litre,

it's almost 400 times the price of Thames tap water.

And isn't it ironic? On a day when we're talking about water,

it has not stopped raining the entire time.

But ultimately, it all comes down to taste.

So it's time to put it to the test. Jerry seems confident.

So this is what, only three hours ago,

-we saw in the Thames coming in...

-Which we talked about.

Indeed. Would you like to try it?

I am going to try it, I'll be intrigued.

So this is a mixture of the river, all the gunge, the sewage...

everything we talked about before, etc?

And this is all in a matter of hours?

-I have to say, it looks pretty clean.

-Hopefully it tastes good.

I have to be honest, it tastes good. Mmm.

Cheers, Jerry, you've convinced me. Very good.

-Oh, you're going to have one as well.

-BOTH: Cheers.

Marvellous, thank you.

You're a real cheapskate - you might've treated a girl

-to champagne at the end of all of that.

-Maybe next time.

Maybe it's Jerry's enthusiasm that persuaded me in the end,

but shortly we'll put bottled water head-to-head with tap

to see how it fares in a proper blind taste test.

The other two tasted like tap water, that tasted like nice, still, fresh, clean water.

But it's not just water that we like all packed up and ready for action.

Shoppers have embraced a new convenience food wholeheartedly.

Ready-peeled and cut-up fruit and veg are a supermarket staple,

as busy shoppers look for time saving short cuts.

But who benefits most from the convenience

of this grab-and-go fruit and veg?

If you haven't got time to pick your own, more than likely

you'll choose your greens from the supermarket.

And often, there they are -

pre-prepared, chopped, bagged, washed.

A bit like this, really.

The question is, how much are you paying for the convenience?

We've come to an East London market

with examples of bagged and loose fruit and veg

bought in major supermarket stores.

Tina, our friendly stallholder, is lending us her scales

so we can find out just how much

we're paying for the convenience of grab-and-go greens.

Let's start with salad - a product that 92% of us buy.

This Morrisons chopped iceberg lettuce,

ready to eat in its grab-and-go bag, weighs 210g.

But for the same round pound, they sell a whole lettuce,

weighing in at 510g. Of course you're forking out

for the packaging and choice leaves, but is it worth the extra cost?

Now we look at peeled mango segments from Sainsbury's.

These two, minus packaging, weigh in at 290g

and cost £3. Compare that to a 500g whole mango for £1,

even if you do get the mango peeled, stoned, packaged

and a plastic spoon to boot.

£1.50 for less than half a kilo of carrot batons from Tesco.

Compare this with the price of a kilo of whole carrots for £1.

Getting my drift? The batons cost three times more.

The British Retail Consortium say they recognise the value

customers place on convenience, and add that these products

are costed according to the resources

and money spent preparing them.

But is this price difference just the tip of the iceberg

when it comes to the issue of bagged fruit and veg?

Then the next question is -

how do they keep the cut-up fruit and veg looking so fresh?

It's baffling because a cut-up apple

at home goes brown in a matter of moments.

Definitely a question for Peter Maynard,

scientist and public analyst.

How long are these likely to have been in the packs?

Well, if you look at this one for instance, it says, "Packed in Ghana."

So that would have been cut up and put in this pack in Ghana.

So, even by air freight, it's bound to be a few days old.

Before it even gets to the fact of us buying it?

Before it gets to us, yes.

What's the process then of trying to make sure this does

remain fresh, from Ghana to the supermarket shelf in England?

Well, it would probably undergo a couple of processes.

First it will be peeled, cut up and the stone removed.

And then it would be dipped in a solution of ascorbic acid, which is Vitamin C.

So it's not harmful,

it's just a dilute solution that will stop it going brown.

It will then be put into a pack

and sealed, probably with a modified atmosphere.

What does that mean exactly?

Well, the normal atmosphere contains about 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen.

If you replace that with carbon dioxide and nitrogen,

instead of oxygen and nitrogen,

there won't be any oxygen present in this pack,

which is what turns the fruit brown.

And in terms of this kind of wrapper on broccoli

and everything, is that a good idea or not?

It will certainly keep it fresh

because it won't have access to oxygen,

and the air is what will make it go yellow and nasty and inedible.

-So this is a good idea?

-Yes, I think it is.

OK, well, let's move down to the chopped bit.

What kind of air is in there at the moment?

Again, it will be a mixture of gases, but it will probably exclude oxygen,

which is what is responsible for most of the browning action.

So what do you eat at home, fresh or bagged?

I pick my own from my garden so it's always fresh!

Our Peter is lucky he has the time to lovingly grow his own.

But for those of us who grab our five-a-day supply

from the supermarket, is our need for speed costing us dearly?

Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston thinks so.

In order to get something as simple as a carrot to be packaged

and prepared and convenient for us to take home and cook or eat,

the vegetable will first have to be washed

in order to remove the surface bacteria.

And that's normally done with a solution with chlorine in it.

It's then going to be peeled.

The peel on a vegetable such as a carrot

can be quite dense in vitamins and minerals.

So we really don't want to be removing the peel

unless we absolutely have to.

Then the vegetable will have to be chopped up.

And when we chop something up we're increasing the surface area,

because we're increasing the amount of that vegetable that is open

and exposed to the air, and all those cell membranes

that have been cut through will allow the nutrient loss of vitamins,

especially Vitamin A and the beta-carotene family.

And we certainly won't get the goodness of them if they're all thrown away.

It's estimated we chuck half the salad we buy in the bin,

and a quarter of that is attributed to bagged salad leaves.

Now, back to water.

I've walked the length and breadth of a water treatment plant

to find out why I should choose tap over bottled water.

It's certainly cheaper.

The perception seems to be that bottled tastes best,

and I was certainly surprised when I tried the Thames tap water.

But let's put it to a broader, albeit extremely unscientific, test.

We sent our researchers to a fun run at Canary Wharf in London,

to carry out a blind taste test with some of these thirsty athletes.

We can clearly see which water is which -

on the right is a bestselling bottled mineral water,

in the middle is tap water, and on the left a supermarket own brand.

But the runners can't see the labels and have no idea which is which.

So will they taste the difference, and which will they prefer?

I think I'll go for this one.

I think it just had a bit of a crisper taste.

It just tasted more refreshing.

Tasted better.

The other two tasted like tap water,

that tasted like nice, still, fresh, clean water.

Well, there's a turn up for the books. Exactly half

of our 22 guinea pigs chose tap water as having the best taste.

You're going to tell me number two is tap water, right? You are. You are.

No... Really?

I'll drink more tap water then, I think.

It's not really worth spending much money on bottled water then, is it?

There you go, good old Thames.

In the end, of course, it all comes down to personal taste.

But if you want to be super savvy and save money, tap comes out top.

Supermarkets and convenience foods certainly give us choice

and make life easier,

but it seems sometimes we certainly pay for the privilege.

So maybe the last piece of advice for the day is,

why don't you do a little bit of preparation for yourself

and save some of your hard-earned cash?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd