Battle of the brands

Buy these products on price

While there may be ingredient differences between brands, we found this had little impact overall on the key nutrients we reviewed for almost half the items. Tim Tam-style biscuits, white and multigrain bread, butter, cornflakes and Weet-Bix-style cereals, apple juice, milk, frozen mixed vegetables, penne pasta, ham, tinned tuna in brine and spreads are all nutritionally comparable between brands, so for these items you should buy on price or taste.

For example, a 1.12kg pack of Aldi’s GoldenVale Wheat Biscuits costs $2.89 compared with $4.99 for the same size Coles Whole Wheat Biscuits. You can also save $3.40 by purchasing a 1kg pack of CSB or WHB frozen mixed veg rather than the same size pack of McCain Traditional Favourites.

Nutritional Better Buys

For almost half of the food items reviewed, some brands do stand out as having the nutritional edge over others, although these brands vary from item to item – and for some items there are multiple “better buy” brands.
Plain water crackers: WHB is the only cracker with a green light for saturated fat content.
Crumbed fish portions: Encouragingly, all surveyed products were low in saturated fat and sugar, and amber for sodium content. Coles steals ahead to be the Nutritional Better Buy with only 2.5g total fat, compared with 9.8g–10.5g per 100g in the other brands.
Low-fat mayonnaise: Aldi and WHB are Nutritional Better Buys, scoring an amber light for sodium with levels of 370mg/100g and 538mg/100g respectively. Sodium levels above 720mg/100g give the rest a red light. See our test of mayonnaise for helpful hints on what to look for.
Instant chicken noodles: Aldi’s, Coles’ and the leading brand’s (Maggi) 2-minute noodles are Nutritional Better Buys than the other three brands, being significantly lower in saturated fat. These brands, along with Woolworths, also have a green light for saturated fat, making all brands a better nutritional choice than CSB and WHB.
Crunchy peanut butter: All products surveyed receive red lights for both total and saturated fat. However, the leading brand (Kraft) is the only peanut butter with a red light for sodium, containing more than three times the amount as CSB.
Shortcut bacon: While Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and Primo (the leading brand) all have amber lights for total fat, Aldi’s Ashfield shortcut bacon also has an amber light for saturated fat, making it our Nutritional Better Buy.
Again, ingredient differences that result in a brand having a better nutritional profile may affect taste. CSB pasta sauce, for example, lists water as its second ingredient. This limits how fatty or sugary the product can be, but doesn’t do many favours for the product’s flavour.
Limiting unhelpful nutrients may be what swings you towards certain brands or products, while in other cases you may prefer to prioritise taste or value for money.