As last year, the Christmas puddings found slightly more favour with tasters than the mince pies - but no company seemed able to shine in both departments.

M&S mince pies, for example, were really excellent (although they did include butter, egg and ground almonds so they should have been), but their Christmas puddings were disappointing; Livwell’s pudding was a winner, yet their mince pies were distinctly uninspiring. Likewise, tasters did not feel that OK Foods Christmas pud worked as well as their very tasty mincemeat slices.

Tasters were, as always, very divided over the Village Bakery offerings, some loving and some hating the big chunks of brazil nut in the pudding, some loving their crisp, chestnut flour pastry in the mince pies, some accusing it of looking grey and tasting too savoury.

However, those with egg allergies should note that only Morrisons, Sunnyvale and Village Bakery puddings will be for them, although they will be alright with all of the mince pies apart from M&S and the OK mincemeat slices; those with dairy allergies will be fine with all the mince pies apart from the M&S and Sainsbury's, and all puddings apart from M&S and Seriously Good Food.

The Seriously Good Food Chocolate and Ginger pud was an interesting entry from Phil Vickery and Steven Poole’s new food company. It is the only gluten-free product that they produce at the
moment but they assure us that they are totally contamination aware.

Manufacturers:

Livwell   www.livwell.eu
Marks & Spencer    www.marksandspencer.com
Morrisons    www.morrisons.co.uk
OK    www.ok-foods.co.uk
Sainsbury’s    www.sainsburys.co.uk
Seriously Good Food   www.seriouslygoodfood.co.uk
Sunnyvale    www.sunnyvaleorganic.com
Tesco    www.tesco.com
Village Bakery    www.village-bakery.com

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