We Weighed Sandwiches to Discover the Best and Worst Meal Deals...

Meal Deals are a British institution. Never has a sandwich, drink and snack meant so much to so many.

However, there’s no correct answer when it comes to what the best meal deal is. There’s some inconsistency in pricing, a massive difference in the variety of snacks and drinks you can get, and lest we not forget a huge difference in the quality, consistency and variety of sandwiches.

Each and every meal deal advocate out there will have felt the sheer horror of biting into a sandwich to find nothing but bread and emptiness. But which major meal deal brand is most likely to leave you feeling peckish after lunch?

We looked at Sainsbury's, Boots, Morrisons, Co-op, M&S and Tesco.

And we weighed some goddamn sandwiches.

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Methodology - Tackling the Sandwich Meal Deals

We chose three of the most popular sandwich varieties available at each sandwich provider, and tried to include ones with consistent branding and pricing (so ignoring the ‘Shapers’ range where possible, etc).

We settled on Egg Mayo, Chicken Salad and BLT.

We bought three of each variety of sandwich from each store - 54 sandwiches in total - and weighed the full sandwich and the filling of each sandwich separately to see which ones come out on top - and which ones leave you feeling a little hard done by.

This also allowed us to highlight which stores are more likely to give you a bread sandwich - that uniquely soul crushing box of bread featuring far less filling than you deserve.

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The Results - Which Lunchtime Meal Deal has the Most Filling?

How did we get here, Boots? How did we fall from such lofty heights, nestled in the heart of British sandwich lovers, and end up here?

Morrisons officially represent with the weakest sandwiches, followed by Boots - and these two are in a league of their own when it comes to scant sandwich filling.

Controversially, given the utterly horribly received revamp to the ‘meal deal’ recently, Sainsbury’s came out on top with the heftiest - and most consistently weighted - sandwiches, followed by M&S and Co-op.

The following chart looks at the total filling weight in each pack of sandwiches - so the total amount of filling in two sandwiches.

(Full version available here)

Marks and Spencer sandwiches did tend to fluctuate a little bit more; meaning that although the average weight of the filling was lower than Sainsbury’s, there was more opportunity to hunt through the shelves for a rogue heavy-filled BLT.

We calculated our average minimums and maximums using a combination of every sandwich to make things a little more balanced. In other words, Morrisons’ minimum was an average of the smallest BLT, Chicken Salad and Egg Mayo sandwich we discovered, and the maximum was the average of the biggest BLT, Chicken Salad and Egg Mayo sandwich.

Supermarket	Min Weight	Max Weight	Average Filling Weight	Filling Percentage
Sainsburys	69g	99g	84.89g	44.15%
M&S	67g	101g	81.11g	43.55%
Co-Op	66g	95g	78.78g	43.98%
Tesco	62g	93g	78.44g	42.37%
Boots	47g	73g	59.00g	34.53%
Morrisons	43g	69g	58.78g	36.05%

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The Results - Which Lunchtime Meal Deal will give you a Bread Sandwich?

The second-least filling by weight AND the lowest percentage of filling?

Boots. Boots? You okay hun?

Sainsbury’s officially offers the sandwiches with the most filling AND the sandwiches with the best bread to filling ratio, with Co-op claiming second place this time around.

But, I repeat - Boots has the second-least amount of filling by weight AND the lowest percentage of filling compared to bread of any of the major meal deal sandwich providers.

(Full version available here)

This also highlights that each sandwich, bread included, can vary significantly in weight. 192g, the average weight of a Sainsbury’s sandwich, dwarfs a Boots option that comes in at 163g on average. That’s 29g - or almost 18% more sandwich.

Supermarket	Average Filling Percentage
Boots	34.53%
Morrisons	36.05%
Tesco	42.37%
M&S	43.55%
Co-Op	43.98%
Sainsbury's	44.15%

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The Results - Sandwich by Sandwich Ratings

Which supermarket has the best BLT sandwich?

Despite kicking it at the top of the tables outright, Sainsbury’s actually has a bit of a split sandwich personality.

When it comes to the classic BLT, Sainsbury’s is actually offering the worst bread to filling ratio.

Supermarket	Sandwich	Average Weight	Average Filling Weight	Filling Percentage
Co-Op	BLT	186g	75g	40.39%
Tesco	BLT	167g	67g	40.12%
M&S	BLT	171g	68g	39.57%
Morrisons	BLT	159g	57g	35.98%
Boots	BLT	158g	53g	33.75%
Sainsbury’s	BLT	172g	57g	33.20%

However, as the update to the Sainsbury’s meal deal shockingly revealed last year, the BLT is no longer part of the meal deal anyway. How curious.

Maybe they were doing us a favour.

Co-Op, however, offer the biggest outright BLT sandwich and the best filling to bread ratio, which is frankly a stellar performance. Top tier stuff.

Which supermarket has the best chicken salad sandwich?

Sainsbury’s absolutely buries the competition with their generously filled chicken salad, with 20g more filling per pack of sandwiches than its nearest competitor, M&S.

At 122g of filling, you get over 50% more chickeny goodness than Morrison, which comes in last for both amount of filling and filling to bread ratio.

Supermarket	Sandwich	Average Weight	Average Filling Weight	Filling Percentage
Sainsbury’s	Chicken Salad	235g	122g	51.85%
Co-Op	Chicken Salad	201g	98g	48.84%
Tesco	Chicken Salad	203g	94g	46.23%
Boots	Chicken Salad	202g	92g	45.46%
M&S	Chicken Salad	230g	104g	45.36%
Morrisons	Chicken Salad	184g	81g	44.02%

The chicken salad sandwich is in the Sainsbury’s meal deal, but is always the first one to go because, y’know, it’s the one that’s actually good.

This is Boot’s best performance, by the way - a mid-table finish in among consistent bottom of the table showings.

Which supermarket has the best egg mayo sandwich?

Another top of the table showing for Sainsbury’s here, but the discrepancy between the best and worst filling providers here is enormous.

Boots - admittedly partially because the egg mayo and cress sandwich is a Shapers option - has well less than half the amount of filling of a Sainsbury’s sandwich, and half the filling to bread ratio.

If your idea of being healthy and getting a ‘healthy’ sandwich is simply getting a whole heap less filling between some bread, then there you go.

Supermarket	Sandwich	Average Weight	Average Filling Weight	Filling Percentage
Sainsbury’s	Egg Mayo & Cress	160g	76g	47.40%
M&S	Egg Mayo & Cress	156g	71g	45.72%
Co-Op	Egg Mayo & Cress	148g	63g	42.70%
Tesco	Egg Mayo & Cress	182g	74g	40.77%
Morrisons	Egg Mayo & Cress	135g	38g	28.15%
Boots	Egg Mayo & Cress	131g	32g	24.37%

Morrisons isn’t far behind, still offering half the filling of the Sainsbury’s equivalent and a far feebler filling to bread ratio.

M&S and Co-Op continue their rotation of the premium spots - the upper sandwich echelons.

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Supermarket by Supermarket Meal Deal Prices

It’s worth remembering that the meal deals do vary in price...

Supermarket	Meal Deal Price
M&S Meal Deal	£3.50
Co-Op Meal Deal	£3.50
Boots Meal Deal	£3.39*
Sainsbury’s Meal Deal	£3.00
Tesco Meal Deal	£3.00
Morrisons Meal Deal	£3.00

… and in the offering among snacks, drinks and other sandwiches.

Most notably, Boots obviously offers a range of triple sandwiches in its meal deal, meaning you can get a whole lot of extra sandwich for your money (but a whole lot of extra bread too).

Sainsbury’s, despite having better sandwiches overall, has now controversially excluded BLT from the meal deal and sells out ridiculously quickly of the chicken salad, leaving you at risk of poor options. The sides on offer from some of the supermarket options are also often on the poor side.

Naturally, this is all something to take into account when purchasing your meal deal, as it ain’t all about the sandwich.

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Packaging Weight vs Actual Weight

As is often the case with pre-packed supermarket and store produce, the weights on the packaging differ quite dramatically from the actual weights of the products.

Interesting, almost every sandwich variety we weighed came in underweight compared to the packaging - only the Tesco Egg & Cress sandwich averaged heavier than the packaging disclosed.

However, certain stores are far worse at offering an accurate insight into just how much sandwich you’re getting for your money: