But what is a home brand product — and does the lower price come with a catch?

What’s the deal with home brand?

In some cases, the exact same factory might produce a fancier brand of tinned tomatoes and a supermarket’s home brand variety.

“In some cases, the product is indistinguishable from the brand name, and in other cases, it tastes or works completely differently,” she said.

Why are home brand products cheaper?

“Home brand products are obviously not investing in this — they’re happily sitting on the bottom shelves, out of the way of their more expensive counterparts.”

Sometimes, price differences also come down to extras — like whether your tinned tomatoes have a ring-pull lid or not.

Do home brand products hold up?

“For example, our most recent tea bag test found that Aldi’s Just Organic Black Tea was the highest scoring overall out of 32 tea bag brands. At just 6 cents per bag, we found they were a cheaper and better-tasting option than brands like Lipton, Twinings, Tetley, and T2.”

Source: SBS News

What’s in it for supermarkets?

“We’ve seen a huge shift in the way our supermarkets in Australia retail. Ten or 12 years ago, there were a lot more name brands. Now we’ve seen a huge shift to more and more supermarket-owned brands, and that is purely for profit.”

While it can mean less choice for consumers, it often results in lower prices and more control for the retailers.

Cost of groceries biting into budgets

A January Finder survey of 1,013 people found that 39 per cent are switching to cheaper brands due to financial pressure.

More Australians are looking to cut back on their grocery bills, with 39 per cent saying they’re switching to cheaper brands. Source: SBS News

Similarly, Compare Club research found that 80 per cent of Australians are experiencing high or extreme levels of bill stress, with half of them cutting back on essentials like food and fuel.

She also says people are now shopping around at multiple stores before heading to the big supermarkets in a bid to save some cash. “They’re looking for the best possible deal and they’re trying new brands.”