The Savvy Shopper. Rose Prince
yourself, on the basis that we are not meant to stuff ourselves with biscuits anyway, why not just eat the odd butter biscuit?
What else is in a biscuit?
There’s sugar, often plenty of it, and if it is refined beet sugar (see Sugar, page 388) it consists of so-called empty calories – in other words, it has no nutritional value at all. Buy biscuits made with pure unrefined cane sugar or fruit sugars; there is little nutritional value in either but the process by which they are made is environmentally sounder. Check the salt content; this may be marked as sodium, which is nearly three times the strength of salt. The recommended salt intake for adults is 6g per day – that’s approximately 20 digestives. Beware innovations: wacky-flavoured biscuits will have their fair share of artificial additives and there will be industry trickery, including using plum-based jams and adding raspberry flavouring (Jammie Dodgers, for example, although the manufacturer, Burton’s, has removed the unpleasant red colouring and say that plum jam makes it stretchier).
Should biscuits contain salt?
Not if they contain good-quality ingredients. Almost all manufactured biscuits contain salt, sometimes too much.
Are there genetically modified ingredients in biscuits?
The Food Standards Agency admits that if soya or maize appears on the ingredients list, a non-organic biscuit could contain up to 0.9 per cent genetically modified material – if that material exceeds 0.9 per cent of the biscuit, its presence must be stated on the label.
Which mass-market biscuits should I buy?
Read labels, looking for mention of hydrogenated vegetable oil, and do not be reassured by the words ‘partly hydrogenated’ – it means much the same thing. Do not be taken in by words such as ‘farmhouse’ and ‘made to a traditional recipe’, especially when there are sulphate preservatives and hydrogenated fat in the ingredients list. Refreshingly, McVitie’s uses no hydrogenated fat in popular biscuits such as HobNobs and Chocolate Digestives, nor does it use artificial colour or flavour in either. Scottish shortbread is also a good choice, often being made with just butter, sugar and flour.
Where to buy biscuits
Blue Mango, 7 Lemon Market, Lemon Street, Truro,Cornwall TR21 2PNTel: 01872 277116
Delicious cheese biscuits made with unsalted Cornish butter, Doves Farm flour, Greens of Glastonbury Cheddar and a pinch of cayenne, rolled with sesame and celery seeds. Mail order, or visit the shop in Truro, where sweet biscuits are available.
Doves Farm Foods, Salisbury Road, Hungerford,Berkshire RG17 0RFTel: 01488 684880www.dovesfarm-organic.co.uk
Organic chocolate chip cookies and other biscuits, including raisin and honey, Cheddar cheese, lemon zest, and very good digestives.
Duchy Originals, The Old Ryde House, 393 Richmond Road,East Twickenham TW1 2EFTel: 020 8831 6800www.duchyoriginals.com
Rich butter biscuits, both sweet and savoury, made with traditionally grown oats and grains.
Frank’s Biscuits, Unit 12a, Holmer Trading Estate, Hereford,Herefordshire HRI IJSTel: 01432 376729www.franksluxurybiscuits.co.uk
Frank Cornthwaite bakes shortbread with pure Somerset butter and flour – so good he has succeeded in selling it to Scotland in true coals-to-Newcastle style. Mail order available.
The Gingerbread Shop, Church Cottage, Grasmere, Ambleside,Cumbria LA22 9SWTel: 015394 35428www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk
Extraordinary chewy gingerbread with no equal. Mail order available.
Honeybuns, Naish Farm, Stony Lane, Holwell, Sherborne,Dorset DT9 5LJTel: 01963 23597www.honeybuns.co.uk
Made on a Dorset farm, these biscuits are highly popular with children. Baked by the appropriately named Goss Custard family, they are made with local eggs, butter and gluten-free grain. Mail order available.
Island Bakery Organics, Tobermory, Isle of Mull PA75 6PYTel: 01688 302223www.islandbakery.co.uk
Prize-winning biscuits hand baked by Joseph Reade on the Isle of Mull, using vegetable oils but never hydrogenated ones. Available online from www.realfooddirect.co.uk.
Konditor and Cook, 22 Cornwall Road, London SEI 8TWTel: 020 7261 0456www.konditorandcook.com
This small chain of four London shops uses superb ingredients (free-range eggs, pure butter) in its beautifully made biscuits. Try the lemon moons, made with ground almonds and topped with a thin layer of meringue.
Lavender Blue, I Sandway Cottage, Bourton, Gillingham,Dorset SP8 5BHTel: 01747 821333
Somerset butter is used in these grown-up biscuits: white chocolate and lavender, cranberry and walnut, orange and cardamom. Mail order available.
Macgregors Original Oatcakes, Highland Avenue,Dunoon, Argyll PA23 8PBTel: 01369 704858www.macgregorsoatcakes.co.uk
Very thin, high-baked biscuits – the best biscuits for cheese on the market. Mail order available.
Popina, Unit 3, Sleaford Industrial Estate, Sleaford Street,London SW8 5ABTel: 020 7622 3444www.popina.co.uk
Isadora Popovic’s biscuits are made with entirely natural ingredients, using imaginative recipes from all over Europe.
Shop for bread and the choice is clear. There are the unmistakable sliced loaves in their wrappers or the crusty, slowly made ‘craft’ loaves of old. I cannot dwell on the thousand or so different types of bread sold all over Europe but a comparison between sliced and wrapped bread and craft bread is inevitable. Bread became adulterated so that baking could be mechanised. The industry will argue that it has brought cheap bread to millions, and it has, but this has been at the cost of the integrity of traditionally made bread from wholesome flour. Interestingly, over the last 40 years we have almost halved the amount of bread we eat at home, while the sandwich market has grown 50 per cent. So, if we cannot be bothered to make our own sandwiches, will we ever again make our own bread?
Who makes our bread?
In the UK, 81 per cent of bread sold is made by 11 large ‘plant’ bakeries, 17 per cent by supermarket in-store bakeries and the remaining 2 per cent by smaller ‘craft’ bakeries. Over half the bread is produced by two companies, Allied Bakeries and British Bakeries. There are approximately 3,500 craft bakeries in the UK, compared to nearly ten times that in France.
How is most of our bread made?
The majority of bread sold in the UK is ‘sliced and wrapped’, a soft bread that keeps for up to seven days, but there is a trend towards craft breads. Most bread is made using a high-speed process known as the Chorleywood Process, with the usual base of flour, yeast, water and salt but also plenty of additives. The dough is made within three minutes, using intense, high-speed mixing. Yeast levels of up to 1.75 per cent are used in high-speed bread making, compared