Supermarket vs Premium Taste Test: Pasta, Pies and Crisps Compared

Introduction

Own-brand groceries are often assumed to be a compromise. To test that assumption, nine products were tasted blind across three categories: dried penne, chicken and leek pies, and lightly salted crisps. Each round pitted two supermarket-owned products against one premium brand, with the challenge of picking the premium option without seeing any packaging.

The results were surprising, especially in the pasta round where the cheapest option earned genuine respect, and the crisps round where the majority pick turned out to be wrong.

How the Tasting Worked

Every comparison was structured the same way: two supermarket-owned brands, one premium brand, tasted blind and ranked on texture, flavour and overall quality. Prices were then compared to see whether the gap in quality matched the gap on the shelf label.

A recurring theme emerged across all three rounds: many UK supermarkets do not own the factories that make their own-label products, and some of those same private-label factories also produce premium brands. In one case, the premium crisp brand is thought to make the supermarket version too.

Round 1: Dried Penne Pasta

All three penne were boiled in identically salted water for 11 minutes, then mixed into the same alla norma sauce with aubergine. The differences were immediate. One sample turned smushy after cooking, one sat somewhere in between, and one kept a firm, al dente bite with a more prominent, almost toasted durum wheat flavour.

The premium pick also had deeper ridges that held more sauce, most likely the result of a bronze die extrusion, which gives a sharper cut and better texture even after cooking. Interestingly, the budget option listed two ingredients, durum wheat semolina plus soft wheat flour, while the other two listed just one.

Giuseppe Cocco Durum Wheat Penne

The premium winner, and correctly identified by every taster. It uses a single ingredient, durum wheat semolina, with spring water and traditional machinery credited for its recognisable texture and quality. At around £4.50 per 500g it costs roughly 11 times the budget option, and while it is not 11 times better, it is genuinely better, especially in texture.

ASDA Just Essentials Penne

The shock of the round. At 41 pence per 500g, this budget penne was picked second in preference, purely on texture, and held up remarkably well given its price. Its two-ingredient list includes soft wheat flour alongside semolina, but it still delivered a firmer bite than the mid-range option. A strong case for how far budget own-brand pasta has come.

Sainsbury’s Penne Pasta

At 69p per 500g, this sat in the middle on price but came last in preference, tasting slightly mushier than the other two. It uses a single ingredient, durum wheat semolina, and is packed in Italy. A perfectly serviceable pasta, just outperformed on texture in this line-up.

Round 2: Chicken and Leek Pies

Three single-serve chicken and leek pies, two supermarket-owned and one premium brand. The differences here were less about ranking and more about character, with two of the three judged exceptional for different reasons.

The premium pick surprised on cutting: a combination of shortcrust sides and a puff lid, large chicken pieces, warming black pepper and julienned leeks and celery, finished with rosemary salt. The middle pie had ham in it, but the seasoning fell flat and there was more sauce than filling.

Willy’s Pies Roast Chicken, Rosemary and Leek

Handmade in Hackney, East London, this was the correctly identified premium pie at £6.00. The pastry is a shortcrust-and-puff combination, and the chicken stock, made with bones, is the second ingredient after chicken. Roast chicken, rosemary and leek with julienned vegetables and a rosemary salt finish.

M&S Gastropub Chicken and Leek Pie

An exceptional pie in its own right, at £5.50. It features all-butter pastry, whole grain mustard, rosemary oil, sweet leeks, and the highest chicken percentage of the three, sourced from M&S’s British chicken farms. You also get 50g more pie than the premium option, for 50p less.

Morrisons Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie

The budget pick at £1.75, and a genuinely good one. Morrisons makes its own pastry products in its own Yorkshire factories rather than outsourcing, which shows: the pie was well made, with flaky pastry, though the sauce was thinner and the seasoning needed another dimension. Excellent value for the price.

Round 3: Lightly Salted Crisps

All three crisps are hand cooked, lightly salted, made from British potatoes in small batches, and thinly sliced. Yet the tasters still found clear differences: one was thick, rustic and very crispy, one was thinner but perhaps even crunchier and saltier, and one sat somewhere between.

This was the round where the blind pick failed. Both tasters chose the option they thought looked premium, and both were wrong. The actual premium brand had the least salt of the three, and the crisps they most enjoyed turned out to be the budget option.

Aldi Lightly Salted Crisps

The tasters’ favourite, and the cheapest of the round at £1.15 per bag. A different type of potato, cooked to a different colour, may explain the thicker, crunchier, more rustic result. Salt content sits at 0.9g per 100g, close behind the priciest option.

Kettle Lightly Salted Crisps

The actual premium brand, at £2.65 per bag. Hand cooked in Norfolk in small batches from British potatoes, with potatoes sourced, where supply allows, from no more than 30 miles of the Norfolk base. Notably, Kettle Foods also produces own-label crisps for premium supermarkets, which blurs the line between brand and own brand. It had the least salt of the three at 0.65g per 100g.

M&S Hand Cooked Lightly Sea Salted Crisps

£1.80 per bag, thinly sliced and cooked in small batches, with the highest salt content at 1g per 100g. The M&S crisps are widely believed to be produced by the same factory as the premium brand, though this cannot be confirmed. Either way, they delivered the saltiest, thinnest crisp of the three.

What This Means for Your Shopping

The biggest lesson is that price and quality do not scale together. The budget pasta outperformed the mid-range option. The budget pie was described as exceptional value from a supermarket that makes its own pastry. The budget crisps were preferred over both premium-priced bags.

It also helps to understand how own-label works. Very few UK supermarkets own their pasta factories, and many outsource own-brand products to private-label manufacturers that may supply several supermarkets, and sometimes premium brands too. That is why a premium crisp brand and a supermarket bag can taste strikingly similar.

If you want the best of everything, the honest answer is that no single supermarket wins in every category. But the reassuring takeaway is that the cheapest option is often better than its price suggests, and upgrading is only worth it where texture genuinely matters to you, as it does with dried pasta.

Conclusion

Across three rounds, the premium brand only won outright once, in the pasta, where bronze-die texture and stronger durum flour were genuinely detectable. The pies came down to a close call between an excellent premium handmade pie and a superb M&S alternative. The crisps round flipped expectations entirely, with the cheapest bag winning on taste.

Blind tasting is humbling, but it is also useful: it shows exactly where a higher price buys something real, and where it mostly buys the packaging.