Supermarket deception

The meat in your purse or wallet   How much are you really paying?


 Panel 2

Where possible, we'll keep the panel numbers akin to those on the previous page here.   The packs you saw are not repeated on this panel.


 

Panel 3a 


         Panel 3b


 

Panel 4

It's about WYSIWYG and WYE prices.  Once you start thinking about such comparisons, you can approximate in your head.  Here's how to do it.

 

Panel 5

You saw earlier that we'll begin by stripping the cutlets down to what we might eat.

This foursome has been trimmed beyond down to the bone. Whereas, one would cook them on the bone, in this exercise, it's necessary to keep to the brief.  Emphasis on WYE.

A trial run with another set of cutlets produced the conclusion that the top part of the cutlets was more stringy than edible.  We'll do without them, thank you.


 Panel 6 is above.  This is Panel 7

Rather more trimmings than WYE meat. 

We started with 315 g.  The weight of the trimmings is 219.3 g.  70% waste.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

The WYE weight is 95.7 grams.  You paid £7.25 per kg - £2.28 for 315 g.  £23.85 per kg is far more than the original £7.25.


Next for the chop is the lighter and pricier chop itself.  With only a small bone and a bit of fat to remove (panel 10b here),even though it is more costly per kg (£12.00) WYSIWYG, we move forward to calculate its WYE price. 


Panel 8 is below.

 Panel 9

We'll concentrate on the WYE meat.  There's much fewer trimmings than with the cutlets.  Weights and prices, as was said before, come later.


 Panel 10 is below.   The meat in the pack weighed 230 g.  The WYE weight is 185 g.  10% waste.

 Panel 11

And now we can compare the cutlets with the chop. Mentally move the two left cutlets on top of the top chop and so on.

 


  Panel 12 


The cutlets at the top are smaller than in Panel 5 and for reasons stated there.


We're ready to move on to the weights and costings.  


The WYE cutlets weigh 95.7 g and cost  £7.25 per kg.  315 g divided by 95.7 g = 3.29.  

£7.25 times that = £23.85.


The WYE chop(s) weigh(s) 185 g and cost £12.00 per kg.  230 g over 185 = 1.24.  £12 times that = £14.88.


Percentage waste


Cutlets - Panel 6 - 70%

Chop(s) - Panel 10 note in Panel 9 - 10%.


I rest my case.  


Even if you don't trim the bone from the cutlets, it still goes in the bin after the meal.  If you put them under the grill untrimmed entirely, there's far more grease to clear and the inedible constituents remain inedible unless you guzzle fat and gristle. 


Never mind  the different WYE prices.  The choice is:

  1. Don't trim the cutlets and have masses to clear up up later. Forget the health issues eating some of the fat and gristle.  
  2. Don't trim the chop and throw away a small bone and a little fat.   
 
£23.85 minus £14.88.  That gives you £8.97.  Divide that by the cost of the chop - £2.76.  Go and by three more packs of chop and there's a bit of cash left over.


There's no supermarket deception in this situation.  You pays your money ...etc.


No deception, just poor advice re cooking the chop(s). See Panel 13.   Why would you roast a small piece of meat like a chop, even if it hasn't been split into two smaller ones?  Answer, if you want to ruin it/them.

Many chop-label readers would take the 230g chop and look at the 30 mins per 450 g advice.  230 is about half of 450 so in it goes for 15 mins plus 30 mins! 


I bury my chop.


 It's best to follow the cutlet advice.  "Grill for 6 - 8 minutes each side."  - medium heat.  However, that may be too long.  Put the grill on full heat and the job's done in about ten mins.




       pagetop


 

  Panel 13