Real Honest Feedback

I like to eat healthy, I am one of these people who do read packaging but that’s only because some ‘food’ that is sold by retailers today, are boarder line ‘food’. Don’t get me wrong though, I do love a selection of meat and potato wrapped in pastry. The classic and satisfying Cornish Pasty is a snack to be reckoned with. I’ve been at the water front in Cornwall, eating the finest pasty, hot and fresh from a dockside bakery and I can say you can keep your Burger King and MacDonalds, that’s serious snacking. Ginsters supply the UK with snack foods, primarily pasties…I remember a time when they were a smaller business and the food was quite reasonable and edible. As the company has grown I’ve seen a rise in the number of products they produce, the quality dwindle and for some unknown reason, service stations and petrol stations UK wide are stocking this stuff as if our lives depend on it. I no longer eat produce like this from where they are sold, i decided to drop them an email.

Dear sir/madam

I am sometimes a bit reluctant to try new things in packets that boldly claim such things as ‘real honest food’. I must say your spicy chicken slice is rather tasty with a can of Cherry coke to wash it down with, but even so, I’ve never tasted spice or chicken quite like yours. I travel around the UK a fair bit and sometimes find myself inside one of the many petrol stations and services that supply snacks. Hungry and in need of something to fill a hole, I’m often greeted with what I can only describe as a Ginster’s shrine. As your recent ad campaign clearly states (all £6.5 million pounds of it) ‘Man cannot survive on crisps alone’, I’m faced with little alternative.

I decided that I should try some other products in your range, out of curiosity.

Have you ever been to Cornwall? Ever eaten a Cornish pasty? I think you would be in for a shock.

Now, I’m assuming all of your food is made by a machine judging by the symmetry and colour of your foods. So maybe you can push some buttons, twiddle some knobs or adjust some levers to get a few things sorted.

Your spicy peppered steak slice, now I like steak and I like spice, but this slice tastes like nothing I’ve eaten before. If you are unable to adjust the volume of whatever ingredient lines my mouth and teeth with a grey, spicy sludge, then at least sell the slice with some mints. I often spot your advertisements in FHM, NUTS and the like. Student boys will never ‘pull’ a women with a mouth that smells like meat that fell behind a radiator.

Your advertising is rather slick, so slick in fact I bought another slice, to which I regret deeply now, my faith in a British born snack is fading.

Your ham and cheese slice, in my opinion you can’t go wrong, this is an ‘honest’ combination. But what kind of cheese is this?! It actually makes my eyes water, don’t get me wrong, I like a mature cheese but this is another level, how do you mature it, in a time machine?!

I purchased today what I considered something even a multi million pound food machine could produce. A tuna, mayonnaise and sweet corn sandwich. I’m writing this message trying my best not to retch and meet your product again on my keyboard.

Let me point out now that there is a big difference between an ingredient, and seasoning. You seemed to have used pepper in this product like there’s no tomorrow, I could hardly keep straight face whilst eating this sandwich, I thought someone was having a laugh.

Seasoning, meaning – ‘something added to food primarily for the savor it imparts’

So this is the end of the road for me and Ginsters, I’ve even thought to myself at times ‘perhaps it was a one off’ but instead I’ve been left with a bad taste in my mouth, literally.

Yours truly,

Mortal Mikey

I’ve sent this message to Ginsters and have ticked the ‘Require a response’ Let’s see what they have to say.