Aliments premier prix : peut-on les comparer aux aliments de marque ?

An increasing proportion of consumers buys low-cost food, though the relationship between cost and nutritional quality, within a given food category, is not clear. The aim of the present work was to analyse this relationship, based on the information registered on the labels of 220 food products, among 17 categories. Within the same category (for example “cassoulet”), food products had the same selling name and packaging, but different labels and prices. The food products with the lowest cost did not have a higher energy density, nor a higher lipid content, than the equivalent branded products. Nevertheless, a positive relationship, small but significant, was observed between the price and a score of quality of ingredients specifically developed for this work. On average, the branded products cost 2.5 times more than the 1st price products, for an equivalent energy density and a slightly higher (×1.3) ingredient quality index. These preliminary results underline the need for a large, independent and rigorous study, based on biochemical analysis, to assess the link between price and quality, within a given food category.