Tesco price-matched items found to contain less chicken, beef and fruit juice
A BBC Panorama investigation has revealed that "dozens" of Tesco products, which the supermarket claims to have price-matched with Aldi, are not like-for-like. The study, conducted last month, found that items such as chicken nuggets, blackcurrant squash and chicken kievs contained less of their main ingredient compared to their Aldi counterparts.
For instance, Tesco's chicken nuggets were found to contain 39% chicken, in contrast to Aldi's 60%, while Tesco's chicken kievs had 44% chicken compared to Aldi's 57%. Furthermore, Tesco's chilli con carne was found to have 15% beef, whereas Aldi's version contained 27%.
However, 12 Tesco products were found to have more of the main ingredient. In response to these findings, Tesco stated that it regularly reviews the quality of its products and has clear processes in place to ensure its price-match products are comparable to Aldi.
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It also noted that a higher proportion of any one ingredient does not necessarily equate to better quality. The five Aldi price-matched products with the largest difference in the proportion of their main ingredient were chicken nuggets (chicken), chicken kievs (chicken), chilli con carne (beef), cottage pies (beef), and apple and blackcurrant squash (fruit juices).
While Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons also offer Aldi price-matched products, BBC Panorama did not find clear evidence of a pattern of consistent differences in the amounts of main ingredients in their items compared with the discounter's equivalents.
A spokesperson for Tesco stated: "Since we launched our Aldi Price Match four years ago it has proved very popular with customers. We constantly review the quality of our products, and we have clear processes in place to ensure that the hundreds of products that are included are comparable with those sold at Aldi."