What is the difference between the national brand, the store brand, and a generic brand of food? You may have heard your mother talk about these when she goes to the store. She might say, “get the store brand”.
What is the difference? I heard all of you say loud and clear – it’s the MONEY! We’ve all heard our parents and others talk about the high cost of everything, including food. Here is an an interesting activity comparing prices on different brands of food.
Let’s say you are going to the grocery store to buy food items on your shopping list. You want to compare prices on a can of whole kernel corn, for example. The easiest way is to find a like size can in each of the three categories – the national brand, such as Del Monte and then the store brand, such as Hy-Vee, and then a generic brand. How did they compare? It may surprise you to see the difference.
If you can carry this one step further and are able to buy each of the cans of corn, here is another experiment. When you bring the groceries home and are ready to do a little testing, open each of the cans of corn. (Hopefully you were able to find small cans of corn). Analyze them on the following points:
1. How does the color compare? Which one looks more appetizing?
2. What is the texture like? Are the contents of the can firm, or mushy?
3. Taste a sample of each and determine which tastes the best to you.
What would be the conclusions to your experiment? Based on these tests, and the cost comparison, which would be the best buy? Share this information with your family. And me, too, if you would like.
Now, what will you do with the opened cans of corn?
Here are some suggestions:
Heat corn and eat
Add to corn bread
Make corn chowder
Make Corn fritters
Stay tuned – as the Chef may find one of his favorite Corn Chowder recipes to share with you.
