±«Óãtv

To help with the task in hand we recruited three members of our 'X-Ray 100' consumer panel, who we asked to take part in a cottage pie cook-off to try out some ingredients.

We bought mince meat, potatoes, peas, carrots and onion in fresh, frozen and tinned varieties.

Julia Kerr from Barry was given the fresh ingredients to cook with. As a mum of two children aged 22 and 17 who still live at home, Julia was keen to find out if there was a big difference between the fresh and the frozen foods, as she mostly uses fresh food at home.

Lee Williams from Blackwood told us that at home, his wife does most of the cooking.

He wanted to use the opportunity to see if he could put together a simple meal from scratch for his family, with the possibility of saving them some money on their grocery bills. Lee used the tinned ingredients to make his cottage pie.

And finally, Emma Rees from Cowbridge took part in the challenge using the frozen ingredients.

As someone who eats a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and a student of nutritional therapy, Emma was interested in the nutritional differences between the ingredients.

Whilst our master chefs tested their culinary skills in the kitchen, Rhodri met with Rhiannon Harris who is the Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at University of Wales Institute Cardiff.

Rhiannon gave us the low down on the nutritional differences between fresh, frozen and tinned foods. She told Rhodri that fresh produce is of course full of nutrients, but only if you use it within a reasonable amount of time after buying it.

She pointed out that you can't keep fresh produce in the fridge for two weeks and expect it to have the same nutritional content as when you first bought it.

Rhiannon told Rhodri that frozen vegetables are in fact good sources of nutrients because they are frozen at source, i.e. as soon as they are picked. Surprisingly, a frozen pea actually has more Vitamin C than a fresh pea!

Tinned foods may not be everyone's first choice but Rhiannon said that if you do want to use tinned foods, they can play a part in a healthy diet providing that you check the nutritional label on the product.

She suggested buying tinned fruit in its own juice as opposed to fruit in syrup, and to buy tinned vegetables in water instead of options that have extra salt added to them.

When it comes to tinned meat like the variety that we used to make one of our cottage pies, Rhiannon informed us that actually, tinned meats have improved considerably and manufacturers are producing a reasonable quality of tinned meat nowadays.

However it is advisable to check the fat content on the label before using tinned meat.

Rhiannon said: "We tend to put tinned fruit and tinned foods down whereas they can make a valuable contribution to your diet. It's better to use those sorts of options and to cook for the family than to go out and have a take-away."

Armed with the nutritional knowledge about the ingredients used in our cooking challenge, it was time for Rhodri to do the all important taste test of the cottage pies made with the different types of ingredients.

So that there wasn't any cheating, Rhodri was blindfolded and tasted each of the pies.

His favourite was cottage pie number two which was the pie cooked by Emma using the frozen ingredients! It was a shock to Rhodri and our chefs that the frozen ingredients were his favourite. Our chefs tasted the pies for themselves and Lee told us:

"I'm actually amazed at how tender and tasteful the frozen produce one was, which I didn't expect."

The frozen ingredients came out on top of the taste test but what about the differences in cost? The fresh ingredients cost £4.49. It was £3.25 for the frozen ingredients and just £2.04 for the tinned.

So if you decided to make a cottage pie using just frozen ingredients compared to fresh, you could save yourself 28% on your shopping bill!