Can you tell the difference between a name brand and a store brand item from the grocery store? It's easy to see the difference at the cash register, but how about a taste test?
Culinary students and professors at Grossmont College helped me set things up from opening the cans to stirring the pots.
On one side of the curtain, a display of food from Minute Maid orange juice to Kraft macaroni and cheese.
On the other, seven women and three men ready to try out an unscientific survey comparing name brand with store brand food.
"I don't want you to try and guess which is the name brand or which is the store brand, I just want you to tell me which you prefer, what tastes best to you" said NBC reporter Bob Hansen as he instructed the participants.
With that, the orange juice was poured, the potato chips were spread out, the ketchup was dipped, and the string cheese was unwrapped.
At the beginning the volunteers had no idea which was Skippy peanut butter and which came from Costco. Where were the Cheerios and which were Trader O's? And which is Campbells and which is Albertson's brand of chicken noodle soup?
At the end, there was a vote. Would they pick the familiar name brand products or the inexpensive unknown items coming from Ralph's, Albertson's, Vons, Walmart, or Trader Joe's?
Some name brands were clear winners.
“The cereal and the soup were the ones you could definitely tell the difference between the name brand and the store brand" said Hansen.
But many of the store brands put up a tough fight.
"So only one person went with the name brand, three went with the store and six went with the tie" said Hansen.
"I was surprised that some of the store brands actually were almost identical to the name brands. That was a big surprise" said one volunteer.
Which were the store brands that either won or tied the big name brands? Ralph's ketchup did better than Heinz. Ralph's string cheese also did well. It was a tie between Lay's potato chips and Great Value chips from Walmart.
"I mean, if I can get it the same thing different, at a cheaper price, then I'll go with generic if it's similar" said one volunteer.
"If they taste the same and if the nutritional values are the same, obviously you go by price" said another
In nearly every case, the store brand was cheaper than the name brand, sometimes by 20 cents and sometimes by two dollars.
So in light of this unscientific study, which do you choose? Do you buy store brands, name brands, or a little of both? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
