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Who: Marks & Spencer

What: Count on Us Roasted Butternut Squash & Mushroom Pappardelle

Where: Chilled/ready meals

When: April 2014

How much: £3.00/372g

Why: M&S has developed its Count On Us range to be low in fat (offering less than 3%) and calorie controlled, and also offers consumers access to a Count on Us menu planner based on 1,500 calories with controlled levels of fat, satfat, sugar and salt.

Consumer verdict: Respondents were initially attracted to the healthy image of the product and said Marks & Spencer was a trusted brand. They were pleased with the balance of flavours and texture of the food, and said they were happy to see a low-calorie count advertised on the packaging. However, some commented the product was too expensive and a third of the group said it definitely wasn’t for them. Purchase intent remained relatively consistent though, dropping only one percentage point after the product had been tasted.

Pre-trial purchase: 33%

Post-trial purchase: 32%

Better than what’s out there: 38%

New and different: 68%

Overall score: 34/50

 

What is Fast Foodfax?
It is a subscriber service that has been running for more than 30 years, offering consumer assessments of new products and allowing comparisons with more than 17,000 products from our database. It is objective, impartial and totally independent, and each product is assessed using original consumer feedback from respondents across the UK. See here for further information.

Fast Foodfax is prepared by Cambridge Market Research, which works closely with The Grocer magazine on a variety of projects including the consumer judging element of the The Grocer’s Own-label Food & Drink Awards and New Product Awards.
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