Food Job Blog: The inside track on Food Recruitment and Careers

In your honest opinion, regardless of price, would you rather buy a branded product or an own label product?

I know from personal experience branded products are perceived to be the better product - but is this true?

What is it that makes us buy a product? Some people go for price. Some go for quality, whereas others will go for quantity or value for money. Is own label the way forward? The question that comes to mind is - will we have a choice in the future?

Certain brands conjure up images of luxury whereas others you will steer clear of. If you know that a particular brand is a "good" brand you are more willing to try their new product than the new product of an own label. You know the brand so therefore it must be the same as their other products, the packaging looks nice, the product is right in your eye line and you do not need to teeter on the edge of a shelf to reach it! The vibrant display makes you want it. "Wow look at those people (actors) having a great time eating this product". Why is it that these things are important to us? If those people are buying it then I should! How absolutely absurd. Usually branded products are far more expensive and everything tastes the same. Have we really turned into a "safe" culture that lacks a sense of adventure?

Own label are the products that most people buy out of necessity. Why is that? If you were to put two products next to each other that were still in the packaging how many people would choose the own label? However, if you then look at it in another way and look at the products out of the packaging, which product would look and taste better?

Do we buy certain brands because of our friends, families, people in the play ground? If so then are we all only ever going to eat the same things?

It's a known fact that we all over-indulge over the Christmas period and I'm no exception. Whether it be food or drink we all stuff our faces until our bellies can take no more! I love the fact that we get to the end of the year and say "blow all the weight watching over the last 11 months, it's December and I deserve a break"! We get into the mindset of "well I will let myself go over Christmas and then as soon as January 1st hits its time to start the treadmill again". As soon as Christmas is done and dusted and we all look like a Christmas turkey, all the New Year resolutions come out again: I must eat healthy, I will go to the gym, twice, maybe three times a week, no fast food and definitely no chocolate, well until Easter maybe. Christmas eating is almost an unwritten law that says we have the right to eat and eat to our heart's content and I have got to say, I LOVE IT!

Now this might come as a bit of a shock to you, but I'm not a turkey consumer on Christmas day. I know that having turkey is supposed to be a given on Christmas day, but I find it to be really dry. I don't know if it's just me and my cookery abilities, but I prefer chicken as a substitute. Is it just me that thinks turkey can be disappointing?

Can anyone let me into the secret of cooking the perfect turkey?

Look forward to your insight.

It is fast approaching that time of year again. Our towns and cities streets are filled with the wives, mothers and girlfriends purchasing that special gift. Our towns and city pubs are filled with the husbands, fathers and boyfriends avoiding buying that special gift. And our supermarkets are awash with that beautiful, magically green brussel sprout.

My Director asked me to write 'an opinion on something you are passionate about related to food'... I chose the sprout!

For years the pantomime villain of food in so many households including my own; Christmas is the one time of the year where the good old sprout gets a fair chance alongside the more everyday, boring vegetable. And why does the sprout divide opinion so much? There seems to be a legacy of negativity towards the sprout that begins on the playground and continues to the dinner table. It is as unpopular and unwelcome for 11 months of the year as Kerry Katona is in the village of Alderley Edge (rightfully so) but for Christmas it sits hand in hand with the turkey and the roast potato and I for one am privileged to say I will be welcoming the sprout to my plate as much as I will be welcoming Santa to my stocking.

So this Christmas do something good and give a sprout a home!