Nearly every supermarket has them: colorless boxes, plain-labeled jars, packages and cartons known as “generic” products.
According to Nancy Siler, a registered dietician and Dominick’s Foods manager of consumer affairs, generic food products were designed for the price-conscious customer and have been somewhat misunderstood as far their origin and purpose are concerned.
” `Inferior quality, rejected products’–these were the kinds of things people were saying about generics when they first appeared,” Siler said. “Today, generics are still related to the price-conscious customer, and they represent one of many tiers of consumer products available.”
Generics first appeared on the market in the 1970s; the first items were paper goods and canned foods and beverages. Today, generics have moved well beyond just food products, ranging from cigarettes to pet food. Anyone who has filled a prescription in the past five years has been told by his doctor or pharmacist that generic drugs are an option.
“As a professional, I’d have to say the customer isn’t giving up anything when it comes to generic drugs,” said Shane Judy, the pharmacist at the Osco/Jewel in Carol Stream. “For one thing, any generic that comes to the market requires a new drug application and has to go through more stringent Food and Drug Administration testing than the standard brands.”
Judy explained that patents typically protect initial production of drugs, and once the patent runs out, other companies come on board and begin manufacturing the drug under the generic banner. They give the drug a chemical name instead of a brand name. Generic drugs can run from 20 to 50 percent less than comparable brand names, Judy said.
Most drug perscriptions can be substituted with generic products, but there are others whose function is more critical, and pharamacists may be hesitant to substitute for them.
One example is the blood thinner Coumadin. “I’m not sure it’s ethical to substitute drugs of this type,” Judy says. “There exist what are called ‘narrow therapeutic index’ drugs, and minor deviations from one product to another can affect what the drug is designed to do. How they’re absorbed into the blood is critical, and unless the generic absolutely mimics the brand name that’s been prescribed, I wouldn’t sell it.”
Judy also cautions that Illinois may be the toughest state in the country when it comes to drugs that are approved for dispensing. “Most states use what’s called `the orange book,’ which contains a formulary list of drugs approved by the FDA,” he said. “But in Illinois, the Department of Public Health produces its own formulary list that contains drugs the state approves and that insurance companies will pay for.”
Your choice to use generic products probably depends on your needs, your budget and a little experimentation.
“Pet food has been available for some time, and owners might be tempted to buy generic dog food, thinking it’s just for a dog or whatever, so what does it matter as long as it’s dog food,” said Dr. Melissa Newberg, a veterinarian at the Care Animal Hospital in Arlington Heights. “A lot of off-brand products contain far more water and vegetable protein that make the product feel heavier, but they’re not necessarily good for an animal.”
Newberg says owners might wish to experiment with generics and consider combining a portion of their food with generic food products and see how their pet reacts.
“Consumers should also not be fooled into thinking because a product says it has a certain minimum percentage of some mineral or vitamin that it’s good. It can also have too much,” she said.
Like prescription drugs, some pet foods are specifically formulated for animals with kidney or liver disorders and, therefore, generic substitutes should be avoided.
“Pet food has been around for 50 to 60 years now,” Newberg says. “Before that, it was largely table scraps, but like anything these days, tremendous strides have been made. There is a lot of science involved in pet nutrition.”
So what part of your weekly grocery budget might be substituted with generic products?
Consider generics for products where taste, quality or texture might not be as critical.
John Yanni, a manager for Family Foods in Carol Stream, said soaps, paper products (especially paper towels and napkins) and canned foods or even bags of rice that you can combine with other foods or sauces are worth trying.
Generic dishwashing soap might not be as concentrated as a name brand, but if you’re using the dishwasher every day and just need extra soap for a pan or skillet once in a while, it really shouldn’t matter.
Paul Longeway, who works for Jewel Foods, says that the store space devoted to generic products is now 80 percent less than it was just a few years ago and that demand determines which generic products will remain on the shelves.
“We might be solicited by suppliers offering 100 products a week they’d like us to carry as generics,” Longeway said. “We might try a few out, but we’ll keep just the items that sell. Sometimes people ask for a certain generic product they bought three weeks ago and now it’s gone because there wasn’t enough demand.”
Here is a sample of current generic products, along with a comparison of brand-name or private label products and prices on comparably sized items. Unlike brand names, Longeway says generics never go on sale, so some of the comparisons may be slightly different over time.
– Value Wise macaroni and cheese costs 45 cents for a 7.25-ounce box; Kraft’s is 99 cents.
– Value Wise 32-ounce ketchup is 99 cents; Hunt’s also sell for 99 cents, but for only a 14-ounce bottle.
– A 26-ounce generic-brand spaghetti sauce costs $1.39; the Prego brand was $2.29; Newman’s was $2.19 on sale.
– Two pounds of generic rice cost 99 cents; Riceland Rice was $1.25.
– Five pounds of bleached, enriched, all-purpose generic flour costs $1.19; Pillsbury was $1.85.
– Generic 9-inch paper plates, 600 count, were $6.99; the best brand deal was a store brand at $5.49 for 150 plates.
