Supermarket pricing policies

[glasgowcyclist]

Glasgow cyclist, since you appear to be an expert on bread, please educate me. It has long puzzled me that whilst factory made bread has all sorts of nutritional info listed on the wrapper, the supposedly home made instore supermarket bakery stuff has diddly squat info. What's all that about? A legal loophole?

I'm certainly not an expert, merely a still-learning home baker!

In short, yes, it's a legal loophole which is fully exploited by the big supermarkets.

If you want to know what's in your in-store baked bread, you have to ask them directly.

The supermarket is not required to list the ingredients on the packaging or on the shelf label, beyond warning of certain allergens and the use of a flour treatment agent (the name and nature of which they don't have to reveal). Nor do they have to tell you about the use of processing agents.

So, even if you do manage to obtain a list of ingredients from them, you'll never know exactly what extra chemicals went into it. This is one of the main reasons I bake all my own bread.

 

[Blue Hills]

TBH, Tesco have been really bad in the past for raising prices just before a "special offer" which returned the price back to just about the original one. Too much management with too much time on their hands.

Yes. I have a few times caught them out when they put the "new super offer" stuff out while forgetting to remove the pre-offer stuff round the corner. Once tried to interest trading standards in the con but they weren't interested. Too short of staff I suppose. Once got the manager of my local Sainsbury's (looking at you Sainsbury's Forest Hill) to clear the shelves of a fake offer. I had pointed out that it was fake and the tosspots were just going to leave it there. I don't trust any of the mainstream supermarkets.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I don't trust any of the mainstream supermarkets.

Me neither. I was intrigued by Morrisons' signs in their store saying their loafs and rolls were all made from scratch in-store. Looking at the hundreds of items on the shelves, and the minimal work area visible, I had some doubts so I asked one of the bakery staff if she could tell me what went into their bloomer, other than the basic ingredients. She couldn't say.

"Don't you make them by hand, measuring out the various ingredients before kneading and baking them?", I asked.
She looked at me as though I were insane and said, "No, everything comes in frozen and already shaped, all we do is bake it."

 

[Paulus]

I fully understand the need to watch out for deals or no deals. In Waitrose last week.
A pack of 4 500ml bottles of London Pride Bitter £5.
On offer, 3 single bottles of London Pride Bitter 500ml special offer for £6.

 

[Blue Hills]

When folk point these things out, in my experience they say it is a "mistake". I find it hard to accept this. What's the mistake? That you spotted it?