SANDWICHES

None of our biggest High Street chains can make a decent sandwich. Consumer watchdogs branded most of their butties stale, rubbery, overpriced and underfilled. Tasters tried 36 cheese, tuna and chicken sandwiches and refused to give any more than six out of 10. They said, "Many ingredients were poor quality or past their best. We endured rubbery cheese, pink chicken, stale bread and soggy salad." Britons spend more than £3 billion a year on pre-packed sandwiches and according to the Which? magazine experts they are being short-changed.

Marks & Spencer's tuna and sweetcorn offering was described as an "unpleasant combination of wet bread, dark tuna and too much mayo". It scored one out of 10 in the taste test and the chain's chicken salad suffered the same fate. Just Chicken from Sainsbury's and a roast chicken salad from the Costa coffee chain also received the same low mark, as did Boots' cheese ploughmans. That had "stale bread, unpleasant cheese, brown lettuce and too much oily mayonnaise" according to the experts.

But the Which? panel - made up of bread experts, food consultants and award-winning sandwich makers - did have some favourites. Coffee Republic, Pret A Manger and Tesco all impressed with their offerings and a £1.70 chicken salad sandwich from supermarket chain Waitrose was considered the best in its category. High Street bakers Greggs fared best when it came to cheese sandwiches as the experts concluded that price rarely corresponded to quality.

More expensive sandwiches, they said, tried too hard to impress with too many fancy-sounding combinations which rarely went well together. They also reckoned High Street cafe chains should stick to making coffee, with Starbucks' sandwiches branded "unbalanced, limp and unpleasant". Starbucks, however, were not too impressed with the experts. A spokesman said, "We're surprised by the results which criticise products that are among our best sellers and ones that we know are extremely popular with our customers."

M&S, recently named sandwich retailer of the year, hit back too. A statement said. "We have over 80 sandwiches in our range and pride ourselves on quality, innovation and variety." Boots, though, have since replaced their cheese ploughmans line with a new recipe. The food experts concluded there was only one place to really find the best sandwich. "If you really want a satisfying sandwich for lunch, get up early and make your own," they said.

Dieticians have accused high-street shops of selling unhealthy sandwiches after a survey found that some sandwiches contain more fat than a Mars bar. Cheese sandwiches, which are often made with mayonnaise dressings, contained the most fat in a study of 50 sandwiches. A Marks & Spencer Red Leicester and Cheddar sandwich, with mayonnaise and salad cream, topped the list. The sandwich, priced at £1.40, contained 41.9g of fat a pack.

The Food Standards Agency suggests that no more than 3% of the daily energy intake for an average adult should come from fat. This works out at about 86g of fat for the average man and 61g for the average women. The Marks & Spencer sandwich contains more than two-thirds of the suggested daily fat intake for women and almost half the figure for men. Its fat content is close to that of four 65g Mars bars, which each contain 11g of fat.

In second place was a mixed cheese and onion sandwich from the supermarket chain Asda with 41g of fat, followed by a Red Leicester and Spanish red onion variety from the bakery chain Gregg's, which contained 37g of fat. Sandwiches from Tesco, Sainsbury's and Pret-a-Manger also feature in the top 10. A spokesman for DailyDietTracker, the diet and fitness website which carried out the survey, said that he believed consumers were unaware that many high street sandwiches contained such high levels of fat or what this meant in terms of their daily fat intake.

He said the high fat contents were of particular concern given that a quarter of British workers are believed to have their lunch "al desko", often eating a pre-packed chain store sandwich in front of their computers. It is estimated that Britons eat 40 commercially made sandwiches a year. The companies said that they offer low-fat sandwiches and provide nutritional information for customers.

Marks & Spencer's egg and cress sandwich had the lowest fat content in the survey, at just 4.7g a pack. A ham salad sandwich from Waitrose contained 4.8g of fat and a Tesco Healthy Living prawn and mayonnaise sandwich contained 4.9g. A spokeswoman for Sainsbury's said, "We offer a wide choice of sandwiches to suit a variety of tastes. All sandwiches are clearly labelled."

She said she did not believe that consumer confidence in low-fat labelling had been dented by reports last week that "lean" supermarket minced meat often has a higher fat content than cheaper, and apparently fattier, meat. A spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association said, "It is important that people look at the label of pre-packed sandwiches because the ones loaded with mayonnaise and meats can be high in fat." (Source: The Independent)