Aldi and Lidl, are their staples healthy?

the keen edge

Seeing as I'am now a full time student, I will need to be more thrifty with my money, and so I will be shopping more often in Aldi and Lidl.

Their prices for the everyday staples seem like great value; today I picked up 1 kilogram of jumbo Irish porridge oats for €0.79, Odlums usually cost me €2.49? in Dunnes, for half that amount!
Their fruit, vegetables and bread seem very good value also.

Anyway with this in mind what do you think of the staples in Aldi and Lidl?
Do you shop there?
In your opinion are their products cheap to buy, because they use inferior ingredients?

I would like to hear the views of others with a better knowledge of nutrition and diet than myself.

EileenG

I have no problems with their quality. I buy quite a lot of stuff there to feed my family. I love the Lidl yogurt, the Aldi cocoa and nuts, and the fish from both. I drink the Lidl expresso coffee in preference to stuff what costs twice as much.

metamorphosis

i live off their cheeses, cottage cheese, eggs, oats, fruit and veg, dark choc, nuts, frozen veg, chicken and salmon fillets and dried fruit and tea and coffee. I love them big time.

lynski

the keen edge wrote: »

Seeing as I'am now a full time student, I will need to be more thrifty with my money, and so I will be shopping more often in Aldi and Lidl.

Their prices for the everyday staples seem like great value; today I picked up 1 kilogram of jumbo Irish porridge oats for €0.79, Odlums usually cost me €2.49? in Dunnes, for half that amount!

* Their porridge is fine, been using it for months now. their weetabix too, but skip the corn flakes, IMO

Their fruit, vegetables and bread seem very good value also.

Anyway with this in mind what do you think of the staples in Aldi and Lidl?
Do you shop there?

* They buy their fruit and veg from the same suppliers as the other supermarkets and convenience stores, I know this for a fact. They decide they are running a special and buy in what they want, without forcing any deals from them. I buy most of my F&V there, and feed it to my children, I often buy their organic ranges because they are so affordable.

In your opinion are their products cheap to buy, because they use inferior ingredients?

* There is nothing I can think of off hand from either store I have had a problem with, in fact some of their products are superior to Dunnes/Tesco equivalents. Their filter coffee is, imo, better the bewleys and half the price and their cold meats are often better quality then main brands and much cheaper. Milk the same, butter the same, eggs the same, yogurts the same, cheese is better in most cases, juices are better, chocolate excellent, pasta great, rice fine, noodles,fine, some really great sauces in jars.

Yawns

SHOP AROUND!

Don't just assume 1 place will be cheaper by reputation. Always go to different shops to get best deals.

My local fresh veg shop has much better value milk and eggs for example. Bread & butter is cheaper in Aldi, biccies from Aldi or Lidl. Tho I tend to find nicer biccies in ALdi for some reason, but lidls have cheaper on some tho

Spice burgers froms Dunne's. Love the fish in Dunnes. You get so much more than Tesco's etc. A lot of shopping is done is Tesco's & Aldi's tho.

As a student you will learn to live on little

davyjose

The quality of Fruit and Veg in Lidl is infinitely better than Tesco, IMO, and at least on a par with Dunnes. Tesco actually sell rotten veg on occasion.

bryaner

I buy all from Lidl or Aldi apart from bread and cereal.

Corsendonk

davyjose wrote: »

The quality of Fruit and Veg in Lidl is infinitely better than Tesco, IMO, and at least on a par with Dunnes. Tesco actually sell rotten veg on occasion.

Every Tesco gets the same fruit and veg. How come the quality is better in some Tescos than others? Good staff in the fruit and Veg!

Incidentally some of the same growers supply most of the supermarkets so how come we think quality is different in each. I find myself that Lidl and Aldi fruit is more ripe and ready to eat while Tesco and Dunnes fruit needs to ripen more.

EileenG

Busy Tescos have higher turnover, so fruit doesn't spend so long hanging round on shelf being battered and handled.

tHE vAGGABOND

Yea, I find I get better stuff and better prices by shopping around from a few different retailers rather than all from one place..

rubadub

Yawns wrote: »

SHOP AROUND!

Don't just assume 1 place will be cheaper by reputation. Always go to different shops to get best deals.

My local fresh veg shop has much better value milk and eggs for example.

+1, my local greengrocer has milk cheaper than tesco's own brand milk next to it. Chicken fillets are cheapest in my butcher, frozen white fish fillets are cheapest in lidl, whole large chickens cheapest in dunnes, cheese & eggs in tesco -it all varies and I have great memory for prices.

Also check their websites for current deals, you have to sign up for tesco but they literally have 100's of deals now so you can go right into the shop and not even have to browse, just go direct to where you know the deals are and stock up -good if you have a freezer.

And check the bargain alerts forum http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=346

I picked up 1 kilogram of jumbo Irish porridge oats for €0.79, Odlums usually cost me €2.49?

You can pick up the 2 brands and do a side by side comparison, check the nutritional information, if they are the same you are probably good to go. In the past I saw tesco value porridge oats had a very low fibre content -I presume this was really left over oats which were stripped of their fibre which was used in supplements. But now their value oats have a normal fibre content, I am always checking stuff like that! it does change from time to time.

Mushy peas is another one, a fraction of the fibre of normal peas, obviously the minced waste product after the pea fibre was stripped out -but they have the cheek to actually charge you more for it!

Some stuff like sauces are watered down, and/or bulked out with starches. Tesco have cheap discreet own brands now, i.e. it is not a blatant TESCO on the pack, like they might have a "curry leaf" brand of sauces, they are priced just a little more than the value brand, but lower than the standard tesco own brand, and much lower than tesco finest. Thing is I usually find these "discreet" brands to be in between the normal and finest ranges quality wise. You can check the likes of sauces and see the ingredients should have costed more but they charge less.

Corsendonk

rubadub wrote: »

You can pick up the 2 brands and do a side by side comparison, check the nutritional information, if they are the same you are probably good to go. In the past I saw tesco value porridge oats had a very low fibre content -I presume this was really left over oats which were stripped of their fibre which was used in supplements. But now their value oats have a normal fibre content, I am always checking stuff like that! it does change from time to time.

Mushy peas is another one, a fraction of the fibre of normal peas, obviously the minced waste product after the pea fibre was stripped out -but they have the cheek to actually charge you more for it!

.

I agree with your first part about shopping around but fascinated by your knowledge of the food manufacturing industry.

I would say they did some testing of there value oats and found the fibre content was actually higher than the label so on the next print run they changed to the higher fibre declaration. The mushy pea idea of stripping protein out and making mushy peas wouldn't work.

stairman

hi, in reply to davyjosie 21/9/10 i am very unsure of any goods sold in Lidl uk. i bought a bionaire fan heater from them in 2009 which nearly burned my house down. i was charged for 22 pkts. of muesly when i had 4 pkts. in 2010.yust a week ago i bought strawberrys (mouldy) carrots (black mouldy) pears (looked ok on outside except around the stems, but were completely brown rotten though not soft right through). all these complaints &suggestions to rectify problems have fallen on deaf ears with Lidl & i have been forced to inform the OFT, Trading Standards &the Dept.of Env. about serious Health &Safety issues with Lidl uk management who have a cavalier attitude to complaints in the same way cowboy builders have. I like thier muesly but not enough to persuade me to shop there ever again.