6 products you shouldn't skimp on

1. Desserts and pastries

If you've tried making a cake yourself at least once, you know it's not cheap at all. Flour and sugar are quite affordable products, but butter, cream, berries, mascarpone are expensive.

When dessert is cheap, it is alarming. It is possible that natural cream has been replaced with vegetable and butter for margarine. All this affects the taste and quality of the product.

The oil contains 72.5–82.5% fat. The mass fraction of fat in margarine, according to the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union, ranges from 20%.

The less fat, the less crumbly the baked goods are, which is critical, for example, for puff pastry and shortcrust pastry.

If the manufacturer uses fatty margarine, there will be practically no difference. But there is no benefit from this either: a quality product will not cost much cheaper than butter.

There will be differences in the manufacture of the cream. For example, natural whipping cream has a fat content of 33% or more. They contain about 1.9 g of protein per 100 g, 2, 8 g of carbohydrates, and in addition to the main product, they contain only a stabilizer. Vegetable whipping cream has a fat content of less than 30%, 2 times less protein and 4 times more carbohydrates. Accordingly, the properties and taste will differ. The cream made from natural cream is denser and soaks the cakes better.

2. Chocolate

Dark chocolate is useful: it stimulates the production of endorphins and improves mood, has a positive effect on skin health, prevents cardiovascular diseases, helps fight diabetes, and strengthens the immune system. But this is only true for a quality product with a high content of cocoa beans.

To choose a good chocolate, follow our tips. But it is better to leave cheap tiles from an incomprehensible brown mass on the shelf in the store. In its production, cocoa butter is replaced with vegetable fats, and grated cocoa for cocoa powder - cake, which remains after pressing the butter from the cocoa beans. This deprives the product of almost any benefit. And the taste becomes an amateur. In addition, the bar will take longer to chew as it has a higher melting point.

3. Semi-finished products

It would be wrong to consider all semi-finished products harmful, because no one hangs the label "dangerous" on homemade dumplings lying in the freezer. But the low price should be alarming.

For example, if a chicken breast cutlet is cheaper than chicken breasts, then the manufacturer has added additional ingredients to it. Moreover, in pursuit of a reduction in price, the composition can turn from a decent into a monstrous one. For example, in the composition of cutlets, which are dispensed from the factory at a price of 181 rubles per 500 g, there is nothing that you yourself would not put into this dish.

But in the composition of cheap cutlets of a popular brand, you will find many foreign products.

True, expensive semi-finished products are also not insured against additional ingredients in the composition. Therefore, you need to look not only at the price, but also at the label.

4. Non-seasonal fruits and vegetables

A low price does not necessarily mean poor product quality. Maybe the supermarket has run out of space in the warehouse, so it empties the shelves. Or the store is trying to sell a perishable product faster.

But the cheapness should make you wonder if the purchase would be risky. For example, in St. Petersburg in April, they started selling fragrant strawberries everywhere at 100 rubles per box weighing about 400 grams. And after that there was news about poisoning with chemicals contained in berries. Therefore, do not turn off critical thinking when you see an enticing price tag, and think about how the seller was able to reduce the price so much.

5. Curd

It is a healthy food with a high protein content. However, manufacturers in an attempt to give it a more attractive consistency or to reduce the cost of production can use extraneous additives. For example, starch in cottage cheese increases the content of carbohydrates in it, the amount of which is worried about a significant part of consumers of this product - visitors to gyms. The jar may also contain palm oil.

These additives can also be found in expensive cottage cheese, but the chances of finding them in a cheap product are much higher. Again, all attention should be directed to the label and composition.

6. Cheese

To make a kilogram of cheese, an average of 10 liters of milk is required. Also, the manufacturer will need rennet, sourdough, salt. Therefore, you cannot buy good cheese at a low price.

Cheap counterparts contain vegetable oils and starch. And this turns the cheese into a cheese product, which a conscientious manufacturer must report on the label. It is produced using the same technology as cheese, only a significant part of dairy products is replaced by vegetable ones.

And if the cheese contains a lot of easily digestible protein, phosphorus and calcium, then its cheap counterpart will not have them. At the same time, starch will change the balance of macronutrients in the product towards increasing carbohydrates. A cheese product, if the plant components were of high quality, will not bring harm, but it will not be beneficial either.