Tabla de contenidos para October 2021 en CHOICE

A few months ago I celebrated my ninth anniversary with CHOICE. Given how many problems we come across in our day-to-day work, you’d think that by now I might have become a hardened cynic. For better or for worse, that’s not the case. Because for all of the rip-offs and unsafe products that we find, we also find plenty of great ones. There are lots of people out there genuinely trying to come up with new ways of making our lives better. Some businesses even seek our advice about how to improve their products. That just makes me more disappointed when we come across others who are making products that appear to be deliberately designed to trick people. There’s probably no industry where we see this more than in packaged…

The Kobo Elipsa is a versatile e-ink e-reader with a tablet-sized 10.2-inch (26cm) display. It’s surprisingly comfortable to hold – once you remove the largely pointless ‘sleep cover’ that’s included in the package, which just adds unnecessary bulk. You can view the display in landscape or portrait mode, or easily lock the display in either orientation. A large bezel on one side of the device lets you use it left or right-handed. At 383g, the Elipsa is lighter than a tablet device, but heavier than most e-readers with six-inch displays, which tend to weigh less than 200g. The Elipsa stylus, also included in the package, gives you the ability to draw on a graph, lines or bullet journal background, or on a blank page. You can save mark-ups and notes…

Australians love their cheese. Last year more than 250,000 tonnes of it was sold within Australia – the majority through supermarkets – which works out at almost 14kg per person, according to Dairy Australia. And despite a gradual decline in sales over recent years, about half of the cheese we eat is cheddar. Not only is it versatile – think cheese scones, macaroni cheese, melted cheese on toast or grated for a gratin – a good vintage cheddar holds its own on a specialty cheese platter. Paying a premium You often pay a premium for the ‘vintage’ or ‘mature’ label, which seems reasonable given that – in theory – you’re getting a premium cheese that has been allowed more time for complex, lasting flavours to develop. So to find the…

Not so long ago, ‘plant-based eating’ was a novel concept, and meat alternatives in a supermarket were limited to a small selection of Quorn mince or Linda McCartney sausages in the freezer. Today you can find a ‘plant-based’ or ‘vegan’ claim on a dizzying array of food products, from lasagne, lollies and yoghurt to condensed milk, shredded cheese and schnitzels. We take a look at the growth in the plant-based alternatives market, and what’s behind it. We also look at people’s perception of plant-based labels on packaged food, how plant-based alternatives compare with their conventional versions and what to consider when buying packaged foods labelled ‘plant-based’ or ‘vegan’. A bounty of plant-based alternatives The number of new plant-based products on supermarket shelves has visibly increased, but the category that has…

An air fryer works more like a small fan-forced oven and bakes food Air fryers have gained quite the following due to their reputation for being a convenient kitchen helper. They’re great for small households, can cook simple (or extravagant) dinners, and are handy for heating leftovers. Some fervent fans even admit to owning two or three, and others claim they now no longer need to use their oven at all. But with price tags ranging from $599 or more for a top-of-the-line Philips model to less than $60 for a Kmart version, it’s worth considering how much you’re prepared to pay to buy into the craze. When our expert testers put 21 popular air fryers through their paces in our labs, a few cheaper models got their tick of…

Cling wrap is a staple in many kitchens, praised as a quick and convenient way of sealing food and leftovers to keep food fresh and out of the rubbish bin. According to leading plastic wrap manufacturer Glad, the cling-wrap market is worth $51 million in Australia, and nine out of 10 households buy it. On the downside, that’s a lot of plastic wrap potentially ending up in landfill. New generation of eco-friendly wraps As consumers become more conscious of their environmental footprint, manufacturers are releasing ‘greener’ products, including plant-based, compostable and biodegradable options. The key to keeping these products ‘green’ is knowing how to dispose of them properly. Sadly, although there are many ‘eco’ or ‘green’ labelling schemes, they aren’t mandatory, so there’s no verification or accreditation process for these…

The CHOICE labs regularly test big-ticket items such as fridges, washers, dryers, dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. With years of testing experience under our belts, we can confidently tell you about their performance and ease of use. We have years of testing experience under our belts Although we aim to cover as much of the market as possible, we can’t test every model out there. So we focus on the products you’re likely to see in stores and online from the major retailers. But what if the product you’re considering isn’t one we’ve tested? This is where our Best Brand ratings come in. They can help guide you in choosing a product, telling you that the brand not only performed consistently well overall in our lab testing, but that it’s also…

As of 30 June 2021, the compensation tally for victims of fees for no service and dodgy financial advice had reached a whopping $1.86 billion. The payouts have been coming from six of Australia’s largest banking and financial services institutions – AMP, ANZ, CBA, Macquarie, NAB and Westpac – whose many misdeeds were aired at the banking royal commission and detailed in its scathing 2019 final report. As of early August, NAB had compensated or offered to compensate 677,531 customers for fees charged where no services were delivered, and will have paid out $556,144,345 in total when the process is finished. In the case of AMP, 225,513 customers are due compensation for the same institutional misconduct, with a total of $230,418,976 eventually making its way back to customers. Westpac owes…

Australians have lost more than $70 million to investment scams in the first half of 2021 alone – more than the total losses to all types of scams reported in 2020. And those are just the cases reported to Scamwatch. The figure represents a rise of 53% compared with investment scams in 2020. The ACCC says many of the scams involve cryptocurrency. “More than half of the $70 million in losses were to cryptocurrency, especially through bitcoin, and cryptocurrency scams were also the most commonly reported type of investment scam, with 2240 reports,” says ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard. “Be wary of investment opportunities with low risk and high returns. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Losses to scams involving bitcoin have reached $26 million…

CHOICE recently teamed up with 75 advocacy organisations across Australia to write to state and territory cabinet ministers, calling for minimum standards for rental properties as climate change continues to affect weather patterns. About one in three Australian households are rental properties, which often have problems with energy efficiency. It’s harder – and costlier – to keep them warm in winter and cool in summer. A recent national poll found that two in three renters find it hard to maintain a comfortable temperature in their homes. Cold indoor temperatures have been linked to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Dr Kim Loo, a GP in Riverstone, NSW, and a member of Doctors for the Environment, says, “Housing and adequate shelter are social determinants of health. I can’t expect to help my patients…

Food waste mostly happens when we buy too much food, cook too much or don’t store things properly. And according to the Love Food Hate Waste project, more than $10 billion worth of good food is wasted each year in NSW alone. Food waste takes a toll on your wallet, but also on the environment. As it decomposes in landfill, it releases methane – a greenhouse gas and big contributor to climate change. “What we eat, and how we purchase and waste it, has a significant impact on the climate,” says Annika Stott, sustainability strategist at OzHarvest. “While there’s no silver bullet to tackle this global problem, there are many things we can be doing and it starts with getting into good habits.” 1. Make a list Work out what’s…

When you’re time-poor and caring for a toddler, packaged food from the supermarket can be invaluable. Toss a snack from the pantry into your bag and you can keep your toddler content in the car or placate them in the playground. Home late from work? No problem. Just grab a meal from the freezer to heat quickly and serve. What’s in the pack often bears little resemblance to what’s promised on the label And not only are they incredibly convenient, but they can be healthy too. At least, that’s what the labels would have us believe, with their claims of ‘locked in goodness’, ‘no added junk’ and ‘made with real fruit’ alongside wholesome images of children and fresh fruit and veg. But things aren’t always as they seem. We reviewed…

When Rosa (not her real name) was locked out on her balcony in July last year, she had no idea that almost a year later an insurance company would be pursuing her for thousands of dollars in damages. Unbeknown to her, the outside door latch on her rented apartment in Melbourne was faulty and when she went out onto the balcony she found herself locked out. Luckily, she had her phone on her and was able to call for help. “If I didn’t have my phone on me I could have been stuck out there and got hypothermia,” she tells CHOICE. The stress of being pursued for thousands of dollars took its toll on Rosa’s mental health ‘It wasn’t my fault’ Eventually the fire brigade had to break down her…

The CHOICE small-appliances laboratory churns through a lot of toast to find which toasters are best at their job. Our experts scrutinise the toast for any imperfections, photographing it for our records (yes, really) before it gets eaten. Previously we recommended toasters with a CHOICE Expert Rating of 70%. But because we think there’s still room for improvement – and to recognise the best of the best – this year we’ve upped our toaster recommendation threshold to 75%. Optimising the toasters Using standard white supermarket bread, our testers run in the toasters for one cycle. They then determine the best browning control settings for each toaster using a standard reference photograph that illustrates our ideal toast colour (B4). This may take a few cycles to perfect. Performance tests EVENNESS OF…

Aportable cot for babies was recalled in late August after CHOICE laboratory tests revealed serious safety failures. We contacted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about the issue – and we urge parents to return the product to the retailer for a refund. The product in question, the Mamakiddies Baby Playard Happy Dino portable cot, failed the mandatory and voluntary safety standards in our labs and “presents a long list of risks including fall, suffocation, entrapment and strangulation”, according to CHOICE tester and expert Kim Gilmour. The cot was sold through retailer MyMoonMart. It declined our request on 12 July to issue a recall to its customers, but subsequently told CHOICE it was no longer selling the Mamakiddies cot. On 25 August, the product was finally recalled following our…

Between January 2016 and December 2019, the sporting goods retailer Decathlon sold 432 basketball rings and backboards and 307 portable swimming pools that didn’t comply with mandatory Australian safety standards. Whatever revenue the retailer got from the sales might have been dwarfed by a recent $1.5 million fine in the Federal Court in a case brought by the ACCC. Many of the product models didn’t include the safety labelling, consumer warnings or instructions for installation and use that the safety standards require. Among the offending products were 66 portable pools more than 30cm deep that didn’t have warnings such as ‘Children have drowned in portable swimming pools’, ‘Ensure active adult supervision at all times’ and ‘Pool fencing laws apply to this pool’. “It is illegal to sell products in Australia…

Charging people a late fee before they’ve paid is a pretty dodgy tactic in our view – and one we called out in the case of funeral services provider InvoCare back in November 2019. At the time, InvoCare was charging customers a $352 ‘administration fee’ as part of its normal billing process. If the customers paid on time, they got the money back – but only if they noticed the peremptory (non-negotiable) charge. InvoCare scrapped this charge, but now another funeral provider, Alex Gow Funerals, has been caught out for the same tactic. As a result, the business recently paid a $13,320 fine after the ACCC issued it with an infringement notice. The $400 ‘Estate Fee’ included in its invoices was actually a late payment fee in disguise. “Funeral businesses…

I have a confession to make: I actually enjoy shopping at the supermarket. I know the rise of online shopping has seen many people ditch the instore experience in favour of cyber-shopping, but that just doesn’t appeal to me. Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly times in my life when it was a dreaded chore that I would, without hesitation, palm off to my other half – navigating the temptations of Coles or Woolies with a demanding toddler in tow is not a memory I recollect fondly. There are even weeks these days, now all my children are young adults and no longer throw tantrums because I won’t buy them a jumbo-sized pack of lollies, when I approach my trip with more enthusiasm than others. But, on the whole,…

Community choice.community How much money do you need to retire? @BassaJack: I am a retired CPA and get asked about financially surviving retirement. I always reply, “see a financial planner”, and then proceed to outline how to source such a person. The reality is reflected in Brendan Mays’ expression, “There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’.” @yoda1: Even people who have saved well can never be sure, so here is our rule: You can safely retire when the compulsory annual takeout of your super pension fund equals your current after tax take-home pay. Until at least age 75 on current rules the compulsory drawdown of 4% to age 65 and 5% age 65–75 will be less than the median balanced super fund long term earnings of 7–8% by about the inflation rate. That way…

More people are doing their grocery shopping online than ever before. And there are clear benefits, such as being able to shop when you want and avoiding contact with others during COVID-19 restrictions. But online grocery shopping isn’t all smooth sailing. One complaint we hear often is of food being delivered that’s close to or past its date marking. It could be a 3L bottle of milk that expires in 24 hours; an expensive fillet steak bought as a treat for an anniversary dinner on the weekend that has to be eaten on the day of delivery instead; or a bag of salad mix that’s already past its use by date. It might be a minor inconvenience, but sometimes it’s a major disruption, and can even pose a health risk.…

When you’re busy with work, parenting and general home life, it’s easy to swap balanced meals for takeaways, or turn the occasional snack into an everyday treat. I wasn’t looking to lose weight, but I knew I needed a bit of a reset. I was drawn to the TV advertisements for Lite n’ Easy and the convenience of prepared calorie-controlled meals. So, I became one of the thousands of people around Australia using the service. The experience I had may not be the same as the next person’s, and I was only on it for a week, but if you’re contemplating using Lite n’ Easy, here’s an insight into what to expect. Getting started Lite n’ Easy have a selection of plans to choose from including Jump Start (a two-week…

Are you looking for inspiration when it comes to dinnertime? Need a break from constantly thinking about what to cook? Or do you want to minimise your food waste? Meal delivery services are marketed as offering an alternative, bringing new variety to your meals and making mealtimes less stressful. Meal delivery services are marketed as making mealtimes less stressful Prepared meals or food boxes? There are two main services. The first gives you fully prepared meals – all you need to do is ‘heat and eat’. These tend to be aimed at singles or couples, and those for whom portion control is a priority. The second gives you food boxes containing recipes and the precise ingredients you need to create the meals at home. These are often aimed more at…

Laundry is a never-ending cycle, a chore that just keeps coming, but teaming your washing machine with the right detergent can help you make light work of it. On the flipside, get the laundry detergent wrong and you may as well be washing with water alone. So we put the laundry detergents you’re likely to find in the major supermarkets to the test against a range of common laundry stains. Your type of machine matters According to our results, the type of washing machine you use seems to play a role in the type of laundry detergent you should buy. Powder detergents appear at the top of the top loader table, whereas liquid detergents appear at the top of the front loader table. But why? HOW WASHING WORKS: ALKALINITY VS…

Chief Executive Office Alan Kirkland (CEO), Alana O’Sullivan, Nikki Jamett Commercial & Finance Tristan Ye (Director), Samuel Gunawan, Jing Jin, Amy Lawrance, Edward Mao, Chau Nguyen, Sera Raicama, Masami Tanaka, Kelly Yang, Phyo Zin Campaigns & Communications Erin Turner (Director), Eleanor Barz, Kate Bower, Jonathan Brown, Katelyn Cameron, Alison Elliott, Daniel Herborn, Jim Hook, Andrew Kelly, Jessica Kirby, Brendan Mays, Franco Morelli, Xavier O’Halloran, Matthias Oldham, Amy Pereira, Dean Price, Julia Steward, Patrick Veyret, Jillian Zarate Data & Technology Ashwin Sridhar (Chief Data and Technology Officer), Matthew Barry, Andre Becker, Aurelien Calixte, Jie Chen, Graham Cox, Bohdan Dubik, Parsa Edraki, Camilo Forero, James Green, Daniel Harrow, Andrea James, Farrukh Khan, Sal Khan, Ishan Koirala, Simon Miller, Ehsan Razavi Nejad, Wahida Nusrat, Deepak Kartik Coimbatore Prakash, Samir Sadikhov, Mitch Thompson, Peter…