A Simple Blind Taste Test

We hosted an event with our ambassadors at the deli last week to showcase the difference between our food and supermarket food. We served various courses of two options, our own and one purchased from a supermarket. The results were so interesting and eye-opening for quite a few.

The various courses that we taste tested were dips and crudites, Mexican bean stew, vegetable dahl, kale and quinoa saald, granola, and brownies. We tried to include foods that are made as a part of our detox delivery packages, shown above.

On paper the differences are stark. Our food is all fresh and made from scratch, containing no refined sugar or preservatives. The supermarket equivalents all contained certain amounts of both. What became really apparent to us is that if you just ate the supermarket food by itself it was much harder to realise how sweet or how processed they tasted. It was only by comparing the two side-by-side that the contrast was so apparent.

As we found it to be such an interesting experiment, we wanted to share our findings with the rest of our audience:

Red Pepper Hummus

While our taste testers were on the fence as to which one they preferred, they were then shocked to find out that the supermarket hummus contained more than three times the calories than ours, and six times more saturated fat. This contrast is down to the fact that our hummus contains over 70% chickpeas whereas the supermarket version used just 37%.

Mexican Bean Salad

In the same amount of salad, ours contained 1.5g of sugar compared to the supermarket equivalent which contained a whopping 10.2g of sugar in one serving. Bizarely the supermarket salad contained Calcium Chloride, which is a preservative used to help foods keep their shape, as well as a dough strengthener and raising agent. Not what you would expect to find in a bean salad!

Apart from the stats on paper, the most striking contrast for our tasters was actually the smell of the two dishes. You could literally smell the sugar and preservatives in the supermarket salad, whereas ours smelt fresh and citrusy. The bowls were also left clean from our salad, whereas the supermarket salad left a greasy residue on the surface.

Granola

Granola is a dangerous one as it is so often marketed as and assumed to be a healthy option, however in most cases the cereal is packed with added sugar. For this comparison we used one of the UK's most loved cereal brand's latest granola product, advertised as being straight from the farm and a healthy breakfast option. When we looked into the nutritional information for this cereal, we were shocked to find that per 100g the cereal contained 28g of sugar. To put this into perspective, our granola contains just 4g of sugar per 100g serving, the sugar coming only from raisins.

Again our version was a firm favourite, the contrast becoming very apparent when testing the two side by side. The supermarket brand was just too sweet, and eating something like that in the morning would lead to one massive sugar high and then slump. We like to pair our granola with rice milk which is naturally sweet, and compliments the granola perfectly.

Brownies

While all sweet treats should be consumed in moderation, the contrast between ours and the supermarket brownies were astounding. The only sweetener found in our brownies is honey, compared to the supermarket brownie where sugar is the main ingredient. Almost half of the brownie bite is sugar, compared to ours which is less than a fifth. They also contain too many additives and flavourings to list! But do ours taste as good? As one of our best-sellers, our beetroot brownies are a definite crowd-pleaser. When compared to the supermarket version ours were much more vibrant and moist, and our tasters said the supermarket version was so sweet most of them couldn't eat it. Interestingly it was only those that tried our brownie first that noticed the immensely sweet, sugary taste of the supermarket brownie.

Words: Ellen Tewkesbury