HOW WE CONDUCTED OUR TASTE TEST
IT'S FREE AND FAIR!
Taste is a subjective thing, but when you gather a group of 40 Food and Beverage Management students from the University of Johannesburg and ask them to blind-taste Chicken a la King ready meals from three of the major supermarkets, you have a fair way of assessing quality.
We presented the students with samples of the meals, without packaging or branding, and asked them to judge them on appearance, taste, the amount of protein to vegetables and the quality of the sauce. We also asked whether they would buy them.
Auditor Jade Craig observed the chefs in the kitchen - we used the facilities at HTA Cooking Academy in Randburg - under the guidance of Chef Kabelo Segone, who prepared the food exactly to the package instructions. Craig then observed the tasting and tallied the scores.
THE RESULTS
FIRST PLACE: PICK N PAY
Price: R42.90 for 350g
What the judges had to say:
- Prudence: Sauce very good, amount of salt good, sufficient for one serving.
- Sthobile: Though appearance is not so appetising, it tastes good, there's a good amount of chicken. Sauce is excellent
- Buhle: Sauce is very good - rich and tasty and everything is well cooked but not sure this is enough for one serving.
- Queen: Colour is good and consistency of sauce wonderful with no lumps.
SECOND PLACE: WOOLWORTHS
Price: R59.99 for 400g
What the judges had to say:
- Takatso: It looks and tastes nice but consistency of sauce is poor - like yoghurt mixed with chicken and vegetables
- Nompumelelo: The sauce
- is runny, chicken pieces chunky but well cooked. Parsley in the rice makes
- the dish look appealing.
- Lethabo: Chicken is well cooked, nice texture but sauce is pale and bland.
- Valencia: Insufficient chicken but plenty of sauce.
THIRD PLACE: CHECKERS
Price: R39.99 for 350g
What the judges had to say:
- Buhle: Thumbs-up for appearance, but chicken is chewy and pieces too big. veg undercooked and sauce too little and tasteless.
- Smangele: Sauce has lumps and too oily. Appearance unsatisfactory , chicken pieces too chunky, too much pepper.
- Thulani: Taste not good, too oily. Chicken too big, sauce poor. Not enough for one.
- Noxolo: Too oily and lumpy. Big chunks of chicken and the veg are overpowering.
