Exclusive Interview: Jay Rayner | Food

Date Published:: 15/10/2007

Hannah Williams caught up with food critic, Jay Rayner, ahead of his Dispatches show to discover the truth about cheap food

As part of the Great British Food Fight you're examining 'The true cost of cheap food'. That's quite an all encompassing title. What issues does the programme look at?

The initial idea for this came at a time when we were just heading into a recession - a good time to look at what goes into the cheapest food in the supermarkets; all the value ranges. I'm not anti-supermarkets in any way. Many foodies are. But I'm not one of them. We live very busy lives and supermarkets provide a service we need. But that doesn't mean they can go unchecked.

We looked at value beef pies and found they were only 18 per cent beef with about 4 or 5 per cent beef connective tissue. I went to Borough Market to try and buy this beef connective tissue to produce my own beef pies and the butcher told me he paid £25 to get the stuff taken away. Now it's not going to kill you but it's not very nice either.

We wanted to find out whether you could take a general value pie or sausage and improve them at a minimal cost. Could we make a significant difference and then see what the cost would be? We worked with an excellent food technologist, David Harrison, who took the beef pie from 18 per cent beef to 25 per cent beef without any beef connective tissue and increased it for a single penny per pie. He also increased the apple content of the value apple pie for minimum cost. It doesn't take that much but will the supermarkets be willing to pay? The argument I make in the programme is if we're going to give supermarkets a free reign then that must bring with it responsibilities.

How did the supermarkets react to your findings?

We spoke to the British Retail Consortium who represents the supermarkets. I didn't expect them to just roll over. They said supermarkets were constantly working to improve the quality of their value ranges. They bodged around the issue.

Family food shopping in the spotlight

So where does the responsibility ultimately lie? Is it all in the hands of the supermarkets?

I want to make it perfectly clear here: We're talking about the really low income shoppers who are really struggling on a budget. If you go and look at this stuff it's not about choice. Once you're down there you're not buying it for its aesthetic value, you're buying it out of necessity. So if they have no choice then the responsibility has to lie elsewhere. And I don't think the government has enough power to have an impact here.

Supermarkets are open to consumer campaigns. They've been moved to tackle the issues around their carbon footprints. But the people here are not necessarily in a position to campaign for themselves. They're too busy struggling with the realities of life.

Food miles, traceability, organic, fairtrade… how willing do you think supermarkets will be to tackle other ethical concerns?

I'm sure there'll be a lot of eye rolling in the supermarket boardrooms the morning after the show airs. But this is an issue that needs to be looked at and needs to be raised.

The supermarkets have such a large section of the market. It's gone from 20 per cent to 70 per cent in recent years, maybe even higher. These aren't just businesses within the market economy, these are institutions and that comes with responsibilities. It doesn't need to come at a huge cost to them. If their annual profits went down from £1.5bn to £1.47bn, I'm sure no one would weep.

What would be your ideal outcome from the show?

Debate would be enough; if people talk about the subject. All the issues around food become far more complicated if you're having to make a tight budget stretch.

So if you were trying to cut costs what would be your number one dining on a budget tip?

Go and get your fruit and vegetables from the value ranges. I'm not polarising my argument. They have stuff in the value ranges of fresh fruit and veg that is fine.

Finally, have you ever shopped at Aldi?

Yes I have. I've written about it. Their cured meats and their cheeses - their Parmesan - are great. They're not the best in the world but they're definitely solid.

Watch Dispatches: January 22nd, 8pm on Channel 4.

Read more on Dispatches: The True Cost of Cheap Food.

Back to The Great British Food Fight.

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Comments

Nicholas Taylor - "per pound spent, the amount of protein (in pies etc) or lycopeine antioxidant (in tomatoes) is significantly greater in the cheaper brands. You just have to eat a bit more" You cant justify them as having greater contents per pound spent. You need to compare them by their values per 100g, of which, value brand produce falls way short (just look at Tesco Value burgers, 58% beef, compared with the Named brand alternitive, 77% beef). If u just ate more of the cheaper product your defeating the object of actually buying the value alternitive! With it you would increase your overall calorific intake as well as saturated fat and sugar intake. Needless to say, its not worth doing!

Posted by Rossy on 25/04/2009 16:24:49

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im suprised at the supermarkets geting away with topping meat up with salt and water to boost their profits, we are soppose to eat more fresh meat but when we are were taking in more salt. they care more about money than anything else.

Posted by craig on 01/02/2009 20:03:54

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Around 43 mins (sky plus) into the program one lady is taking her shopping from the Sainsbury's supermarket to her car in sainsburys shopping bags when it clearly shows a Morrisons box and a Asda tin. Why is this??? :)

Posted by soph on 29/01/2009 21:04:58

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I think Nicholas Taylor's comment should be reported... for being bloody brilliant!

Posted by disappointed on 27/01/2009 01:06:47

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i enjoyed your show and found it informative, i agree that with the veg side of food it is generally ok to go for cheaper items without losing substance. But i find that cheaper prepared (mashed) meat products are a joke and should not even be sampled! if the public rejected the lower substandard product then a better would follow, forget at the same price-but by your findings a penny more per item i reckon the public will pay! im sure peeps out there would agree that the wastage from poor quality food going in the bin instead of mouths will more than compensate. for one the ultimate waste ie cheapo burgers that dry up and are no better then a frisbie, crap frozen pies that turn into concrete if microwaved... the cheapo banger pure fat and rusk. without distressing readers i wish to enlighten you on mechanicly reclaimed meat for these products.... a carcuss is jet blasted to a slurry of gunk that is then repressed into shapes of meat products... nasty. thats all i have to say at the moment i hope you will eat better tommorow. always read the label, if it aint pure it aint worth squat!

Posted by sbd on 27/01/2009 00:28:14

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It is a shame that the program only compared lines within the supermarkets themselves - I would love to have seen even the top of the range supermarket meat pie compared to a butcher's own, for example! I personally am also fed up with all the boring padding these programs contain. Instead of the same tired old format of filming families why not just give us the startling facts on a wider range of items with a wider range of contents/ingrediants compared?

Posted by disappointed on 27/01/2009 00:18:14

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Just watched the programme and for sure it brought up a lot of interesting (if obvious) points for discussion. I'm a father of two young kids, and I believe both my wife and I are conscious of diet and cost together. I'm disturbed however by the "blame culture" and it doesn't sit well with me our (society's) willingness to absolve ourselves of responsibility. It is not up to the supermarkets to decide for us. We are given choices and information to make the decisions for ourselves based on that information. Come on Britain, wake up and take control! You get what you pay for!! What you "pay for" doesn't always mean cash money, but also means time and effort. If you're prepared to take the time and make the effort then you can eat healthy at a reasonable financial cost. Of course, you could always just sit back on the sofa surfing the TV channels whilst stuffing your face with cheap and nasty foods, all the time complaining that the big bad supermarkets are killing us slowly...

Posted by Jacobyte on 27/01/2009 00:17:31

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Jay Rayner in Dispatches omits to point out that, per pound spent, the amount of protein (in pies etc) or lycopeine antioxidant (in tomatoes) is significantly greater in the cheaper brands. You just have to eat a bit more. So what really matters is what they contain that isn't good for you.

Posted by Nicholas Taylor on 26/01/2009 23:43:29

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Hi Interesting program but a rush of figures so looking for a table of the test results. Is there one?

Posted by Chris on 22/01/2009 21:03:04

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The Great British Food Fight Jay Rayner tells us the truth about cheap food

As part of the Great British Food Fight you're examining 'The true cost of cheap food'. That's quite an all encompassing title. What issues does the programme look at?

How did the supermarkets react to your findings?

So where does the responsibility ultimately lie? Is it all in the hands of the supermarkets?

Food miles, traceability, organic, fairtrade… how willing do you think supermarkets will be to tackle other ethical concerns?

What would be your ideal outcome from the show?

So if you were trying to cut costs what would be your number one dining on a budget tip?

Finally, have you ever shopped at Aldi?

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