The test
What we did
We sent reporter Ayanna Kirton to scout out supermarket shelves and to come back with a few products -- one each of the regular version along with the diet counterpart. She surfaced back at the office with Grace Tropical Rhythms, mango carrot juice -- regular and diet; McVitie's digestive cookies -- regular and the 25 per cent reduced vegetable fat version; and the piece de resistance. Nestle's ice cream -- diet Belgian Chocolate and regular (Nestle) Rolo Creme Glacee. (Our reporter was not able to get diet and regular ice cream of the same flavour).
How we did it
We asked Gleaner staffers to sample (with a period of time between each product) first the juice, then the cookies and finally the ice cream. Tasters did not know which was diet/low fat and which was regular. We asked them whether they could differentiate between diet and regular and to give their opinions on each.
McVitie's cookies
Determining which of the McVitie's biscuits were the diet and which were regular proved a little more difficult. Although the word "LIGHT" was clearly engraved on the low-fat cookie, only one taster actually picked that up.
COMMENTS INCLUDED:
On the regular cookie:
"This is saltier."
"It looks browner than the other one."
"This is thicker, but somehow the ingredients don't come together."
Reduce fat version:
"Tastes very good...very wheaty"
"This (fat reduced) is crunchier.
"Something's missing, the flavour
isn't rich enough."
"It tastes a lot like the regular biscuit."
"This has a stronger vanilla taste to it."
DETAILS
Calories per 100g or the regular: 496 (the label did not say how many cookies were in 100g). Price: $50.55
Calories per 100g of the reduced fat: 466. Price: $55.70
