‘What things do you know most food shoppers are wrong about?’ – 21 excellent supermarket secrets that you’ll want to know

Despite the fact that it’s not a trait currently serving us well as a species, us humans are a credulous bunch and will believe all sorts of things without question. They’ve been discussing how gullible we can be on the AskUK subreddit after Responsible_Rip1058 posted this:

‘What things do you know most food shoppers are wrong about?’

Here’s the rest of what they had to say.

‘I’ve noticed a bit of a ‘Chinese whisper’ effect, often started by semi-clued-up TV programmes on Channel 4 who try to educate public with misleading half truths Example I’ll give is Greek Yoghurt. There is a massive belief that ‘Greek Yoghurt’ is the only proper stuff and that ‘Greek Style’ is fake yoghurt full of thickeners and gums.

‘Actually, ‘Greek Yoghurt’ is a protected term (PDO) meaning it was strained in Greece. ‘Greek Style’ is usually just the exact same process (strained yoghurt), just made in the UK or elsewhere. In the US, ‘style’ might mean added thickeners, but if you look at UK supermarket labels, most ‘Greek Style’ yoghurts are literally just milk and cultures.

‘Some are less strained than others to meet a price point, but the trick is to check the protein per 100g rather than obsessing over the word ‘Style’.

‘It’s the same concept as Cornish pasties, a pasty made in Devon using the exact same recipe can’t call itself Cornish, but it’s still a proper pasty. Some supermarkets greek style is just as protein dense, but sometimes not and that might bother you, I know I personally rather just buy double of the amount and enjoy it just as much.

‘What other examples are there of shoppers misinterpreting labels or buying into food snobbery because of a technicality?

Who knew? And this excellent nugget of information prompted lots of other people to chip in with their own tips, like these…

1.

‘Buying deeply mediocre Champagnes because it has the word ‘Champagne’ on the bottle for x3 the price of the much nicer Crémant next to it on the shelf.’
–Harrry-Otter

2.

‘If it isn’t refrigerated in the shop, it doesn’t need to be refrigerated at home. Amazes me how many Brits put their eggs in the fridge as soon as they get home. It is totally unnecessary.’
–BobBobBobBobBobDave

3.

‘One weird one that I don’t think is ‘most shoppers’, but too many… I spoke to someone years ago who worked for Pataks. They said the most common call people made to the customer service line was people saying they had bought a jar of sauce and it was really spicy and gritty.

‘It was curry paste. They had tried to make a curry by spooning in a whole jar of spice paste.’
–BobBobBobBobBobDave

4.

‘That low fat or fat free automatically means they’ve used sugar to make up for the lack of fat. Some products do, some don’t. Just read the label. In fact if people actually read the nutritional labels and ingredients I think it would go a long way to helping people make smarter food choices.’
–missuseme

5.

‘Buying a bag of nuts and eating said bag of nuts in one go because it’s better than a bag of crisps. Then complaining that you’re not losing weight.’
–wildOldcheesecake

6.

‘Too many people think that because something has ‘protein’ on it that it’s for optimal gym performance and health but it’s not.

‘99% of the time the protein options only have 2-5G more protein than the non-protein version but twice the amount of calories and other things like salt, sat fats and sugar so you’d be much better off having a portion and a half of the ‘non-protein’ version. The versions not labelled with protein sometimes have exactly the same protein content.’
–Extra_Actuary8244

7.

‘Elmlea is not cream.’
–thehillshavepiez

8.

‘That anything with an E number is bad. E-numbers are just classifications for particular additives, but many of these come from completely natural sources and aren’t some nefarious chemical cooked up in a lab. Lots of them are from seaweed and other plants.’
–pip_goes_pop

9.

‘This isn’t exactly shopping but throwing out dried or tinned goods because of the best before date. Pasta, lentils, dried beans, all the tins; they all last FOREVER! They cannot go off (unless there’s been actual damage). Sooo much waste caused by this! And it’s basically a scam at this point. Makes me fume!’
–RayaQueen

10.

‘There is a ‘correct way’ for something to taste and the ‘correct way’ is a sign of quality. Personal taste is all that matters for your own food. If you like sweet red wine, buy it. Like dark roast coffee, go for it.’
–Electricbell20

11.

‘I’m sure it’s been said already, but MSG is not some terrifying artificial poison. If it were half the world’s population would be up shit creek. It’s just salt and glutamic acid which is a naturally occurring amino acid producing the umami taste. It still baffles me to see crisp packs etc with NO MSG across it as a selling point. They’ll be less tasty then!’
–alancake

12.

‘Salad cheese and feta cheese, similar for grilling cheese and halloumi as well. The PDO mean they get the name designated but the ‘style’ versions are made the same, just not in that area.’
–Mglfll