One woman put eight supermarket salmon fillets to the taste test – from Aldi’s budget £2.99 fillet to a premium £10 Loch Fyne – and the results left her completely floored
While most supermarkets offer the same sort of products, the prices can vary massively depending on what you’re buying and where you’re buying it. So far this year, Aldi has often been named as the cheapest UK supermarket do you your food shop in, followed by Lidl, while some also claim the typically more expensive supermarkets, like M&S end up saving them more.
But does the varying price point have anything to do with the quality of the food you’re buying? While some might assume this to be true, it might not always be the case. To put it to the test, one woman named Becca, who often compares similar products from various brands and supermarkets, decided to compare eight fillets of salmon from different brands and supermarkets to see if the price could tell anything about the quality of the fish.
Taking to TikTok, where she boasts over 633,000 followers, the Gloucestershire-based food critique went on to share the eight various salmon fillets she’d bought before she went on to compare the taste of each of them in a taste test.
“I bought the cheapest, most expensive and mid-price salmon from the supermarket. So let’s try them all and see which one tastes the best,” Becca explained at the beginning of the video.
Under £4 salmon options
First in line was Aldi’s Essential salmon, priced at £2.99 per pack. Regarding this, Becca remarked: “Now, it might be several pieces, but they’re about the same weight as literally 10 grams more or less than some of the other fillets.”
She continued by observing that the pack contained some ‘very skinny’ pieces of salmon, though they still offered a ‘decent’ amount per piece, describing it as the ideal portion size for her needs.
When it came to her test criteria, she explained she’s on the hunt for something flaky with a robust flavour, that isn’t laden with fat or overly greasy. And it appears Aldi managed to tick every box.
“These are amazing value. They have got a decent taste to them. They are nice and meaty. It’s flaking away, it’s buttery. I’m really impressed,” she said. “If I close my eyes, I wouldn’t know that they are specifically value salmon.
“I’m gonna give the Aldi essential ones an eight and a half out of 10,” she said.
She went on to sample two further budget options, but found that Sainsbury’s Stanford Street Co fillets, which she paid £3.49 for, were ‘tasteless’ in comparison to the Aldi offering. Aldi’s standard salmon fillets, priced at £3.59, meanwhile, stormed ahead with a score of nine and a half out of ten.
£5 salmon fillet options
Turning to the mid-range options, Becca tried Sainsbury’s standard branded salmon, priced at £4.95, but declared these were equally ‘tasteless’, much like their budget counterpart had been.
“I like the fattiness, I like the texture of the salmon, it’s really nice, but there is just no flavour,” she said, before scoring it five out of ten.
M&S, however, proved a real showstopper, as their Caledonian Gold salmon — also priced at £4.95 — left her utterly blown away, drawing comparisons to a steak and clinching a perfect ten out of ten. As for Tesco, she’d picked up a slightly pricier version costing £5.15, which contained 20 grams more fish.
However, these didn’t win her over either, as she said: “This has more of like a gamy taste, like it doesn’t really taste like salmon, more just tastes like generic fish.”
Because of this, the Tesco fillets earned themselves a score of four out of ten.
£10 salmon fillet options
“Then we move on to the most expensive. And this is the most exciting part of the video for me because, truly, it tells me whether these most expensive ones are better than the standard and cheap versions,” Becca said as she turned her attention to the pricier salmon.
She began with ‘the cheapest of the most expensive’, which was Russell’s Organic salmon fillets that she’d ordered from Ocado for £9.25.
“It’s like a completely different fish,” she said after her first bite. “Got a real earthy flavour to it. It’s almost a little bit salty.. Becca went on to say: “This is definitely meatier. I’m give Russell’s Organic a nine out of ten.”
Next up were Tesco Finest Sockeye Salmon Fillets, the only wild caught salmon on her list, which had set her back £9.45. She proceeded to praise the ‘well-rounded’ flavour of the salmon, before awarding it another nine out of ten — considerably higher than the standard Tesco variants.
Rounding off with the priciest option, Becca sampled another Ocado find — the Loch Fyne salmon fillets, priced at £10. She instantly picked up on the smokiness of the fillet, noting it was the only smoked option on her list.. After taking a bite, she said: “It is unlike any of the others here. I would say they’re 100% worth the money.
It is probably one of the nicest salmon fillets that I’ve tried. Genuinely.”
“I don’t think that’s something I buy all the time, but as a treat, as like a date night dinner,” she added. “Wow. Loch Fine also get a 10 out of ten.”.
