Birds Eye fish fingers used to be a freezer staple for many households, but they're becoming less and less affordable as the price in some supermarkets has skyrocketed to nearly £8.
In Sainsbury's, customers were said to be "falling to their knees" after noticing a 30 pack of Birds Eye fish fingers was selling for £7. However, according to Dianne Bourne of the Manchester Evening News, this is a bargain in comparison to other retailers such as Asda, Tesco and Morrisons where the 30-finger value pack is now selling for around £7.50, with the price at Ocado being £7.90.
Dianne says she would normally cringe at paying more than £2 for any box of fish fingers but would "push it to £3" for a bigger pack. So, she decided to put supermarket budget non-branded options to the test, seeing which supermarket's own brands would stand up to Birds Eye.
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She also recruited her six-year-old son who, like most kids, is a fish finger connoisseur.
Dianne said: "For a fair comparison, I purchased each supermarket's own brand packet of 10 cod fish fingers, to compare to the Birds Eye cod version."
The Birds Eye 10-pack can be found for different prices at different supermarkets, and Dianne purchased hers from Morrisons for £3.60.
She noted they were also £3.60 at Asda and Tesco, while at Sainsbury's they were priced at £4. The cheapest supermarket deal we found this week for the branded box was at Waitrose, where they are priced on special offer at £2.95, down from their usual price of £3.70.
The own brand version at most of the supermarkets was up to half the price of the Bird's Eye version, she said. Here are the prices in order from cheapest to most expensive:
Aldi - £1.55
Lidl - £1.65
Morrisons - £1.80
Tesco - £1.85
Asda -£1.85
Waitrose Essential - £2.20
Sainsbury's - £2.25
Birds Eye - £3.60 (purchased at Morrisons)
Dianne decided to grill all the fish fingers for ease, but she noted the Tesco fingers had a shorter cooking time than the others.
She said: "I thought I'd best keep a watchful eye on that one and bring it out sooner if it started to erupt.
"The Tesco one was indeed the first to be ready, its orange skin starting to crumple the quickest, so off it came. It was swiftly followed by the Sainsburys finger and the Waitrose one, both of which began to wrinkle up.
"The rest were all ready around the 15-minute mark and remained of firm and handsome figure, I thought. It was the Birds Eye one that looked like it still needed cooking even after the suggested 15 minutes, perhaps because of a paler appearance that made it stand out from its bright orange fishy cousins.
"Most were fairly sturdy, but I found the Tesco finger the hardest to grapple and it looked like it was about to collapse in the middle when moved from grill to plate. The Birds Eye one was also surprisingly floppy to the touch. The Lidl, Asda and Morrisons comrades were the sturdiest units after cooking, I'd say."
Next, Dianne filled a plate with fish fingers and began comparing how they tasted.
She said: "Aldi was immediately a stand out for me, with a delicious fresh-tasting white fish interior." So far so good!
Dianne continued: "But I'm afraid the Lidl one was a big no from me, the innards tasted slimy and looked a tad grey, while the exterior was the brightest of bright orange. In order to be fair, I gave the Lidl fish fingers a second shot in the oven (as per the recommendation on the packet).
"But this did not improve the flavour in any way for me. The Sainsbury's fish fingers I found rather pleasant, but it was the Tesco finger, which, while a little floppier than I'd have liked, delivered a really stand-out fishy punch with a tasty thinner membrane than some of the others - I found it to be quite unusual and delicious.
"The Asda and Morrisons fingers were fine, but much of a muchness, there was no particular standout flavour but both a fair example of the genre. Perhaps the biggest shocker for me was that the Birds Eye original also didn't really stand out for me - I was expecting it to blow away the opposition.
"The biggest win of all though, was that they all passed the kid taste test - he was happy with pretty much all of them. The only one, would you believe, he vaguely gave a thumbs down to was the Birds Eye finger.
"He said his 'favourite' was the fish finger from Aldi. I could have happily given him a fish finger high five at this point - given it's the cheapest one and that's what he's now going to be eating for the rest of his time under my roof."
Dianne said it was a no-brainer that she'd be sticking to supermarket's own brand fish fingers from this point forward - if they taste as delicious, it just makes sense!
Here are Dianne's full ratings:
1) Tesco - £1.85 : 5/5
2) Aldi - £1.55 : 5/5
3) Sainsbury's - £2.25 : 4/5
4) Birds Eye - £3.60 : 4/5
5) Asda - £1.85: 3/5
6) Waitrose - £2.20 : 3/5
7) Morrisons - £1.80 : 3/5
8) Lidl - £1.65 : 2/5
Aldi definitely seems to have come out on top here getting a 5/5 rating and only costing £1.55 for 10. That's around 15p per fish finger - what a bargain.
Have you tried the supermarket's own brand fish fingers? Let us know in the comments.
