NOT FOR A WEAK STOMACH...

Boots "Shapers" tuna and cucumber

pounds 1.05

The big idea for the "Shapers" range is simply not to add much of a filling. This sandwich comprised a mere sprinkling of tuna, a lettuce leaf and three slices of cucumber. Even the bread was rationed into thin, rubbery slices: it was not hard to see how there are only 188 calories in this travesty of a sandwich.

Rating: 1/10

Marks & Spencer prawn and mayonnaise

pounds 1.19

Not at all bad. The filling is fairly substantial, with more prawns than normal. This was particularly impressive as the label proclaimed there was "40 per cent less fat". But the bread was soggy in some places, hard and crusty in others.

Verdict 6/10

InterCity brie and bacon

pounds 1.95

This sandwich is edible, if a little bland, so long as you don't open it up and examine the contents too closely. The bacon, though plentiful, looks suspect. Both the brie and the bacon had lost their flavour: the most prominent taste of all was the malted wholegrain bread.

Rating: 4/10

Catering & Allied (Independent canteen) vegetarian sausage with raita sauce

pounds 1.30

The plainest sandwich of the lot: wedges of authentic tasting "vegetarian sausage" on buttered bread. The exotic sounding raita sauce - a mixture of yoghurt, mint and cucumber - had been smeared very sparingly on only one of the slices of bread.

Rating: 5/10

Pret A Manger tuna, mayonnaise and cucumber

pounds 1.89

This was King Sandwich. Freshly made, it was undoubtedly the wiser more fulfilling elder brother of Boots' attempt. There was a substantial amount of tuna, the lettuce was crisp and the cucumber fresh. But the bread was a little crusty around the edges.

Verdict: 8/10

Patterson & Bartlett (garage sandwich makers) chicken tikka

pounds 1.49

Alone the sight of this sandwich is enough to put you off. With three days to go before the sell-by date the bread was already hard. The contents looked reconstituted. Though your taster took a bite out of this sandwich, he was unable to swallow it.

Verdict: 0/10