Sainsburys, like most supermarkets offer a basics range of food, toiletries, household items and beverages all at low costs in comparison to leading brands and all identifiable by the Basics orange and white packaging.
I am quite happy to order the basics range when I do my shopping, though I tend to steer clear of it for my fresh meats, because offers usually work out at a better value in store. I.e. 3 items for £10. However, on this occasion I didn't need a massive shop and living alone I didn't need a large portion, so I bought the Basics British Beef Mince.

These 400g packs cost just £1.25 in Sainsburys and are their cheapest packaged fresh mince in the store and currently the cheapest value option between the big supermarkets on price comparison sites. The come in the usual white and orange packaging meaning you can't miss them. The plastic film on the top is easy to pierce and easy to peel back. Once opened there isn't an overbearing smell of raw meat, but you can see that there is a far bit of fat amongst the thick strands of mince.

Pour it into the pan and start cooking. I don't add any oil to dry this mince. Because the fat was so noticeable it was obvious that it was going to produce enough fat to cook in its own juices and this worked perfectly.

The mince did produce a lot of fat. More so that a more premium brand and I wouldn't normally drain so much off it before adding a sauce.

As it is, I tend to pour my excess fat into the original packaging and let is solidify before throwing it away in the bin. Saves the drains!

The mince breaks up quite well with a wooden spoon but once cooking tends to lump together again and need further separating. Visually this doesn't look too tasty. However, once fully cooked and added with a sauce (bolognaise in my case) it wasn't too noticeable. One bonus is that I detected no gristle in the meat when eating which was great as a bite of gristle in my beef can put me off the rest of the meal.
The texture of the mince is not as fine as a leaner product but is beefy and tasty. It absorbs the sauce well and mixes easily. Although I think I prefer to buy a less fatty and thinner strand version this was a perfectly acceptable substitute and I have no complaints.

The nutritional info isn't something I tend to look at but each 100g of this product has 17.3g fat, 228calories and 0.3g salt.

I cooked my mince for 10 minutes on its own repeatedly moving it in the pan as I didn't add oil, before adding onions for a further 5 minutes. Once completely brown with no pink bits I added my sauce and simmered for a further 15/20minutes until my pasta was ready. For one person I can make 3 meals from a 400g portion with added onion, mushroom, peppers and sauce. I freeze my additional portions and defrost at a later date. This doesn't have a negative impact on the mince.

No complaints from me and I would fully recommend this product to anybody on a budget.

This product can be frozen but must be used within 24 hours once open.