The value for money thatÕs still to be found on our doorstep

Date Published: 21-Nov-2012

One of the great joys in life is to stroll though Galway’s market on a Saturday morning, bumping into the people we used to meet up with in pubs on Friday nights back when we were all a couple of decades younger and could stick the pace.

But apart from the chance to chat, it also allows you to stop off and buy the best of wholesome Irish food at a fraction of the supermarket costs, secure in the knowledge that if it was any fresher, it would still be in the ground or on the tree.

The fruit and veg stall that faces onto St Patrick’s National School is a hive of activity, as Ronnie and his cohorts help you stock up on enough of your five a day to safely see you through the week – and for the price of a couple of pints.

I would be the first to admit that I’ve had a tempestuous relationship with food that is good for me – perhaps it was the vats of baked beans forced on us all in boarding school – and I am to broccoli what Phil Hogan is to common sense.

But even I recognise that fruit and veg are critical to any sort of a balanced diet – and here we have a repository of it on our own doorstep. Of course there are Farmers’ Markets up and down the county, offering the same sort of sensational value.

And in fairness, the big supermarkets have got their house in order on prices as well.

The problem is, however, that – as money gets tighter – research shows that we’re inclined to allow an economic recession to lead to a nutritional one as well.

Research in the UK and published by the Guardian newspaper last week, for example found that cash-strapped families were filling up on high-fat processed foods as 900,000 fewer manage their ‘five-a-day’ fruit and vegetables in the past two years alone.

The data show consumption of high-fat and processed foods such as instant noodles, coated chicken, meat balls, tinned pies, baked beans, pizza and fried food has grown among households with an income of less than £25,000 a year as hard-pressed consumers increasingly choose products perceived to be cheaper and more ‘filling’.

And while those foods are undoubtedly cheaper – particularly on the ‘own brand’ shelves of your local supermarket – you will never beat the market stall for value or quality. So even when money is tight, there is a way.

You will find, for example, that a dinner for four of roast chicken, boiled potatoes and a couple of veg will invariably work out cheaper than a trip to the chipper.

But in fairness, the former requires preparation – and sometimes convenience wins out. That said, it is also the case that a lack of culinary skills dictates that fast food is the only option.

And, as with so many things, it is those who earn least or who live nearest the poverty line who are most affected.

The data quoted by the Guardian, which captured consumer food buying habits up to June 2012, showed that the rising price of food – up 32% over the past five years according to official UK figures – meant the least well-off consumers focused their increasingly stretched food budgets on frozen and processed products at the expense of fresh fish, meat and fruit.

Food choices of poorer households were driven primarily by price and were more likely to be influenced by two-for-one style price promotions, most commonly associated with processed food products.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.