Patersons Shortbread Reviews 

I used to buy Patersons products and recommend them to friends whilst perusing the cracker aisle at the local supermarket. Until, that is, they started changing the recipes. They made the best oatcakes when they used olive oil as an ingredient. Now it's sunflower oil. Their shortbread has also become the worst, least edible of all shortbread I've eaten. Instead of using butter as tradition requires, it's now the dreaded and ubiquitous rapeseed oil (Canola), which depending upon who you believe, is not as good for you as the market claims, and some say is even seriously bad for you. [some info can be found at seventhwaveuk]

Patersons shortbread's taste and texture now more closely resembles the cardboard packaging it comes in. The box I bought recently was so bad that I ended up feeding it to the birds, and even then only the Jackdaws ate it! It's a shame, because you can find traditional butter-based shortbread for a fraction of the price in the low budget supermarkets that is infinitely better.

No doubt the company are pandering to the low unsaturated fat propaganda we hear ad nauseam from all corners of the market, and whilst I understand the need to be 'competetive' in business, my feeling is they have compromised the integrity of their products for the sake of sales (although it remains to be seen whether such changes actually translates into greater sales long-term, particularly when products just taste awful). I personally have now stopped buying Patersons - or any other products that contain rapeseed oil - for the above reasons.