Testing our patience

A certain kind of listicle has been steadily gaining in popularity over the past few months, creeping into Instagram DMs and WhatsApp chats and Slack channels. That’s right, it’s the ranking of random supermarket staples. 

In fairness, The Guardian has been running a series on this for a while, and the New York Times for even longer. But recently, these benign column fillers have started to cause more of a stir.

First, The Guardian’s tinned tomatoes taste test set off a wildfire/damp squib of chatter because they ranked Mutti second bottom. You know Mutti. They’re slightly more expensive but have the nice design and can structure that’s ribbed for your shopping pleasure.

Next came Good Food with a comprehensive guide of 21 cans of supermarket tuna in oil. The winner (Sole mare tuna in olive oil to save you a click) cost $3.50, which is at least three times more expensive than a can of tuna should be. Stock Merchant Provisions tuna wild caught hand packed in organic EVOO could only manage fourth spot despite costing a criminal $8.49.

It makes sense that in a cost of living crisis, food journalism is turning to pantry basics and home cooking. 

But come on. Is anyone really tripling the price of their weekly tuna shop or buying a can of tomatoes that doesn’t allow you to play it like a guiro because of these articles? Probably. Which is arguably more depressing than FIFA corruption and generational warfare combined.