Making homemade versions of five common ultra-processed foods (UPFs) cost up to twice as much as buying the packet versions and took significantly longer, according to a home experiment by Jen Sherman, who tested chicken nuggets, muesli bars, almond milk, potato chips and Mint Slices.
Sherman, who has spent five years trying to reduce UPFs in her family's diet, set out to answer a recurring question: how much does eating from scratch actually cost? Her findings, published on her Substack, show that while some homemade items were cheaper, others were not, and all required more time than opening a packet.
What counts as ultra-processed?
Dr Priscila Machado, a nutritionist and public health researcher at Deakin Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, describes UPFs as “branded, commercial formulations made from cheap ingredients extracted or derived from whole foods, combined with additives, and mostly containing little to no whole food”. She advises checking ingredient lists: “If there are ingredients you don’t recognise or use at home, like protein isolates, emulsifiers, colour, flavours, and other additives, it’s probably ultra-processed.”
Machado stresses that occasional consumption is not a problem and that the bigger concern is the overall dietary pattern. “The evidence shows that the proportion of UPFs in our diets is what matters most; in Australia, UK and US almost half or more of the total energy consumption comes from UPFs. The issue is that UPFs can gradually crowd out foods and meals made from scratch ingredients, often without people really noticing that shift.”
She also cautions against blaming individuals: “We need to be careful not to put the responsibility back on individuals by telling people they should cook everything from scratch. People are making food choices within environments where UPFs are often cheaper, quicker and easier, particularly for families with limited time or money.”
The five homemade alternatives
Sherman made chicken nuggets from chicken thighs coated in a mix of egg, homemade mayonnaise, garlic powder, salt and pepper, then breadcrumbs and baked. The homemade nuggets cost $21.74 for 800g ($2.72 per 100g), compared to $5.50 for a 400g bag of frozen Ingham’s crumbed chicken breast nuggets ($1.38 per 100g). Cook time was 1.5 hours versus 18 minutes. Her eight-year-old rated them “better than restaurant nuggets”.
Muesli bars made with rolled oats, butter, honey and vanilla extract cost $3.25 for 14 bars ($0.23 each), versus $5.50 for a box of six Uncle Toby’s chewy choc chip bars ($0.92 each) at Woolworths. Prep took 10 minutes, baking 20 minutes, plus at least an hour chilling. Sherman notes the homemade bars fell apart more than store-bought ones, though that may have been user error.
Almond milk made from one cup of raw almonds and water yielded about 500ml at a cost of $2.90 ($5.80 per litre), compared to $1.85–$3.40 per litre for store-bought almond milk. Active prep was five minutes, but required at least two hours of soaking and clean-up. Sherman was surprised to find the homemade version “creamy and full, with a lovely depth of flavour”.
Cost and time trade-offs
Potato chips made from thinly sliced potatoes with homemade barbecue or salt and vinegar seasonings cost $5.70 for 670g ($0.85 per 100g), versus $6 for a 165g bag of Red Rock Deli sea salt and balsamic vinegar chips ($3.64 per 100g). However, they took three hours to bake in a small oven. Sherman and her family agreed they tasted, looked and felt like potato chips, but they lost crunch by the next day.
Mint slices made with Lindt 70% dark chocolate (the only emulsifier-free chocolate she could find) cost $26.10 for 19 biscuits ($1.37 each), compared to $5.50 for a 200g packet of Arnott’s Mint Slices with 13 biscuits ($0.42 each). They took two hours to make. In a side-by-side taste test, the family found the homemade version more chocolatey, less minty and more melty than the packet version.
The verdict
Sherman concluded that muesli bars and potato chips were cheaper to make from scratch, while chicken nuggets, almond milk and mint slices cost about twice the UPF price – but contained more actual chicken, almonds and chocolate. Unsurprisingly, all took longer than opening a packet.
She plans to keep buying packet potato chips given the baking time, but will make nuggets again. “My goal is UPF reduction, not elimination,” she says. Machado agrees: “At an individual level, it also doesn’t have to be all or nothing. People don’t need to make their own bread or mayonnaise to improve their diet. The aim is to progressively shift the overall dietary pattern towards more minimally processed foods and meals prepared from scratch … in ways that are realistic for their time and budget.”
In the spirit of the book Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: make the nuggets, buy the chips.
