READY made sandwiches are one of the boom areas of catering. We buy 1.8 billion sandwiches a year and spend £3.5bn on them. And do you know what? - most of them are rubbish.

Think about it. When you make a sandwich at home, do you use low quality meat, lots of gloopy dressing and then stick it in the fridge for a few hours until it's damp and chilly?

Of course not. But that's what happens to most commercial sandwiches. The chill factor is inevitable in the quest for health and safety of course. But however good the original ingredients, once they've been packed, chilled, transported and stored, they've lost a certain something. Taste, usually.

A report by Which? Consumer magazine this month revealed that sandwiches aren't even what they seem. In a survey of sandwiches from leading stores such as Bhs, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, they found that chicken had been pumped up with water, oils and starch.

And they travel miles. Sandwiches on display in Scotch Corner one morning had been made in Milton Keynes. That's an awful long way for a bit of damp ham and limp lettuce. No wonder it tasted tired.

We also pay a fortune for them. Buying sandwiches at lunchtime instead of making your own can easily cost you an extra £7 or £8 a week. There are better things to spend £400 a year on.

Made-to-measure fresh sandwiches generally mean a longer wait in the queue. But is it worth it? We've been doing some serious snacking.

ANGEL'S SHARE *****

Nicest bread

This Darlington deli has freshly made sandwiches, wrapped but not chilled so full of flavour. Excellent ingredients, good range, fresh and appetising. Our ham salad - nice and thick - cost £1.85.

ASDA ***

Very much standard, chilled supermarket fare. However, these were cheaper. Deep filled egg and cress - which would have been very tasty if it hadn't been chilled - was 74p. A massive cheese and pickle baguette was £1.58.

DEEN'S OF HARTLEPOOL ****

Pre-packed and delivered to garages etc in the area.

Big chunky sandwiches in stottie-style rolls. Ham and pease pudding, £1.58, had decent white bread and proper ham. Tuna, mayonnaise and cucumber, £1.58, had plenty of tuna and the right amount of mayo.

GREGGS ***

Just ham sandwich £1.40. Roast chicken and stuffing stottie £1.55.

In both cases the bread was fine, but the meat was a disappointment. Watery ham, and chicken that tasted of nothing.

HUNGRY JACK'S *****

Best Value

Made to order sandwich with choice of fillings and additions, all in white or wholemeal bun. Plenty of decent ham. All for £1. Hard to beat.

MARKS & SPENCER ***

M&S have probably done more to popularise the packaged sandwich than anyone else. Terrific range, all neatly labelled from meat to veggie to low fat/calories.

We tried poached salmon £2.20. Sounded delicious - poached Scottish salmon with dill mayonnaise and watercress in oatmeal bread. But it was deeply disappointing. The salmon, when we picked a bit out, was fine, but it was lost in the damp gloopiness of the mayo and the bread.

MORRISONS ***

Good range of sandwiches, prepared on the premises, so at least they don't have a long journey to tire them out. Cold from the chill cabinet, but at least not quite as damp as some. They also have a number without mayonnaise, which again reduces the gloop factor. We tried the ham baguette - reasonable bread, plenty of decent ham £1.75, and the best chicken caesar at £1.99, presumably not prepared on the premises. This had a sell by date of yesterday and we bought it on Tuesday. How fresh is a fresh sandwich?

SAINSBURY'S ***

Free range egg mayonnaise topped with slices of whole egg and peppery salad cress on malted bread £1.25. Good ingredients, one of the better packaged offerings. Ham and mustard sandwich £1.10 - watery ham

SUBWAY *****

Biggest sandwich

Bread rolls ranging from big to enormous - a foot long. Choice of bread freshly baked on the premises. Have to say the breads are all a bit airy, but choice is nice.

Huge range of options - meats, cheese, salad garnishes. Subway - an American firm - boast that they do seven sandwiches with less than six grams of fat, ranging from the veggie delite at 210 cals and 2.7g of fat, to the roasted chicken with 304 cals and 5.2g of fat. All assembled to order, so you can pick and choose just what you want - we had everything with the veggie delight including olives and chillies. And just a smidgen of dressing. The ham was proper ham, very smokey, but with a good chunky flavour. Fresh sandwiches from around £1.80.

TASTY MAC ****

Very similar to the Subway operation but on a slightly smaller scale. Choice of bread and choice of salad accompaniments all freshly prepared to order. Beef and ham were fine if not special. But at £1.59 these were fine and fresh - and you could get exactly what you want.

TAYLORS OF DARLINGTON *****

Best sandwich in town

Hot pork sandwich with apple sauce and stuffing £1.49.

Taylors - famous for their pork pies - do a range of ready prepared sandwiches in rolls, which are very good BUT the piece de resistance is the hot pork sandwich.

They are made to order and the assistants carve the slices of pork off the hot joint, though usually it's great chunks of meat.

You're offered stuffing, apple sauce and even a bit of crackling. It is a world away from any of the pre-packaged chilled damp apologies for sandwiches and just the thing to cheer up a gloomy winter lunchtime.

VERDICT

A supermarket sandwich is a sad and chilly experience. However good the original ingredients may be they are not at their best after a day in a chill cabinet. They all tasted soggy and samey.

All the freshly made sandwiches were much more interesting and appetising, even if less exotic. No doubt, in time, supermarkets will catch on and we will have sandwich counters where assistants slice the pork, just like they do in Taylors - but at least twice the price.

P.S. We have also had wonderful hot pork sandwiches from the fish and chip shop in Frosterley.