Friday 19 July 2019

Chunky haddock in batter

Haddock and cod taste about equally nice, they're about equal in price, but on average haddock only contains half the level of mercury.  So, especially with my health anxiety,  I would much prefer to buy haddock where possible.  I used to buy the own brand supermarket versions of chunky haddock in batter from places like Tesco, Morrisons and Lidl where the haddock fillet comprises 65% of the ingredients and is by far the cheapest option for buying haddock.

Unfortunely, one by one, all the supermarkets I shop at have stopped selling chunky haddock in batter.  All of the other three alternatives; namely chunky haddock in breadcrumbs, chunky cod in batter, chunky cod in breadcrumbs, are all still available in all these supermarkets, but not the fourth option I want.

Presumably people are buying cod rather than haddock and have a preference for breadcrumbs over batter.  So the supermarkets simply do not consider it financially viable to stock chunky haddock in batter, at least not for the same price as the other three alternatives.  I bet people wouldn't buy cod in preference to haddock it it were well known about the respective mercury content of these two fish!  But anyway...

I have emailed various complaints to the supermarkets.  One response from Tesco suggested I buy their haddock goujons.  On the 7th November 2018 I responded with the following:

Thanks for your suggestion I try the haddock goujons. The Tesco Battered Haddock Goujons are on current special offer of £2 instead of £3.20 for 200g.  Even with the special offer it is £10 per kg. The haddock comprises 52% and the batter 48%.

The battered chunky haddock was £6 per kg and 65% haddock, 35% batter, and this was the proper price i.e not on special offer.

We can work out how much the actual haddock costs per kg in each respective case by dividing the price per kg by the proportion of the product which is actual haddock.  In the case of the goujons it is 10/0.52 = £19.23 per kg.  In the case of the chunky haddock it is 6/0.65 = £9.23 per kg

So £19.23 per kg for the haddock goujons, and £9.23 per kg for the chunky haddock.

We also need to bear in mind the goujons are on "special offer".  They are normally £3.20 rather than £2.00.  So normally the price per kg would be 3.20/2.00 * 10 = £16 per kg. So for the actual haddock the price per kg would be 16/0.52 = £30.77 per kg.

So normally it would be £30.77 per kg for the haddock goujons, and £9.23 per kg for the chunky haddock.

Moreover, since the chunky haddock is 65% haddock, compared to 52% haddock for the goujons, the chunky haddock tastes much nicer.  Furthermore, it'll be healthier too since generally haddock is deemed to be a healthy food, and batter is something we ought to try and minimise.

For the above reasons I do not regard the haddock goujons option as being desirable.

Incidentally, at this point in my post, I thought I would check the price of these haddock goujons to see if nine months later they are now the proper price (i.e not on special offer). Lo and behold they are on special offer again for the same price!  It is clear that items that are frequently claimed to be on "special offer" are nothing of the sort.  That is, the supermarkets are lying about them being on special offer. This is the real normal price, where as the "normal" price is an inflated price. They do this to encourage people to buy the item.  Marketing tactics such as labelling battered blobs of haddock as battered haddock goujons will also encourage people to buy them.  Compare "would you like some haddock blobs sweetheart?" to "would you like some haddock goujons sweetheart?".

Anyway, I've been stuck with buying haddock in breadcrumbs for the past few months.  Not as nice as batter :-(.  Do other people really prefer the taste of breadcrumbs to batter?  Or is it that they think breadcrumbs are more healthy?  Or perhaps they just buy fish in breadcrumbs out of habit without really thinking about it? 





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