Low-cost foods: how do they compare with their brand name equivalents? A French study

Abstract

Objective: Consumers are increasingly relying on low-cost foods, although it is not clear if the nutritional quality of these foods is fully maintained. The aim of the present work was to analyse the relationship between cost and quality within a given food category. Design and setting: The relationship was analysed between nutritional quality and cost for 220 food products belonging to seventeen different categories, controlling for package type and package size. Given that a summary of nutrient information was not available on the product label, a novel ingredient quality score was developed based on listed product ingredients. Results: Within a given category, the lowest-priced foods were not different from the equivalent branded products in terms of overall energy or total fat content. Nevertheless, a positive relationship, small but significant, was observed between the price and the ingredient quality score. On average, the branded products cost 2?5 times more than the low-cost products, for an equivalent energy and lipid content, and had a slightly higher (1?3 times) ingredient quality score. Conclusions: More studies are necessary to evaluate the nutritional quality of low-cost foods. This evaluation would be facilitated if nutrition labelling was mandatory. Yet in view of the present results, it does not seem to be justified to divert consumers, especially the poorest, from low-cost foods because this may have an adverse effect on the nutritional quality of their diet, by reducing further the fraction of their food budget spent on fresh fruit and vegetables. KeywordsCosts and cost analysis Food Socio-economic factors Choice behaviour EconomicsAnalyses of marketing trends, in France and the USA, show that low-cost foods and beverages are growing in popularity. One reason why the food supply is being segmented in this way is to meet the demands of a more budget-conscious consumer for lower-cost foods. The same product or product category can broaden its appeal across social strata when offered at different price points. Offering the same product at a lower price is an effective way to compete with the more costly brand name products. In France, the introduction of food discount stores during the 1980s further intensified the competition between food distributors, contributed to the diversification of brands and reduced the dominance of brand name products. The repercussions of such price wars on consumer nutritional status and health are not clear.In particular, it is not clear whether low-cost foods are of the same nutritional quality as their more costly equivalents. In France, 36 % of consumers think that 'low-cost' products are of poorer quality than the equivalent brand name products and 15 % think the same about the distributors' own brands (1) .In general, the nutritional quality of diets tends to be inversely linked to their energy cost, i.e. their cost per 10 MJ (2,3) . This relationship has been attributed to the existence of a 'nutritional quality/price' hierarchy across main food group...

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