IT was a battle of the burgers - and pizzas - at the University of Newcastle on Tuesday, as popular takeaway foods were pitted against the humble home cooked meal in a test of taste, time, cost and nutrition.
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Clare Collins, a nutrition and dietetics professor at the university, said they wanted to conduct the challenge in the wake of the rise of food delivery services such as UberEats and Deliveroo.
"There is this whole generational thing of UberEats, so we decided to redo a challenge we did a couple of years ago during Smart Eating Week with two of the most common takeaways - a burger, and a pizza," Professor Collins said.
"I must admit, I was shocked to see how much it cost to get a pizza delivered.
"It cost us $31 and took 23 minutes to get one of the really popular pizzas delivered to our food lab, and we made two pizzas from basic ingredients - that tasted better - for $8 in 19 minutes.
"It shows - again - that if money is tight, it really is worth the investment to think about adding $8 worth of ingredients to the shopping list. You can put the pizza bases in your freezer or fridge, or even the cupboard - they'll last a week, and use up all your leftover toppings to make a pizza rather than getting it delivered."
Professor Collins said the recipes - plus many more - were available on the No Money No Time website.
"We have so many recipes there that you can make that save you money, save you time, and are absolutely better for you," she said.
One UberEats burger cost $23.44, and took 36 minutes to arrive, while four homemade burgers came to a total of $3.79 each, and took 20 minutes to cook.
"It cost us $23 to get one burger delivered that didn't look like the picture we ordered it from," she said. "It had almost no salad or vegetables in it, whereas we made four burgers for $16.
"It's such a challenge for people to eat vegetables and fruit. But a pizza and a burger are ways that you can use up those vegetables that are getting close to the end of their life that can still be grated into your hamburger patties, or diced up and thrown over a pizza base. The home cooked versions tasted better, had a higher vegetable content, they were more nutritious, and way, way cheaper, and neither of them required fancy cooking - just some assembly."
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