Do they have food scientists just guessing and checking with taste testers? Or do they know the exact recipe somehow and just tweak it to avoid lawsuits? Or do big box stores require name brands to hand over their recipes as part of a contract to shelf their brand along with their own store brand? Do the name brands try to keep it a secret but they keep getting bested? I have no idea how this works.
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In many cases, it *is* effectively the same recipe and product. The big brands are typically made by the same producers that make store brand. The big brands are price at a premium because they have a higher quality control, whereas store brand may have more or less the exact same ingredients but they don’t meet the high standards for the big brand, so they are relabelled as a budget label.
It’s worth noting that a store brand can’t be sued by a big brand for reproducing the same product, flavour or using the same recipe. Trade secrets are not protected by patent – and in fact, the brands *don’t* want to patent it because it means that *exact* formulation must be written in the patent, which means *everyone* can copy it – but no one can sell it without paying the big brand. So they simply don’t patent it and don’t reveal if anyone happens to get it right. Hence, some generic brands not only taste very similar to big brands, but in some cases might be better or liked more by certain people.
So two cola brands might end up being very close in flavour, but Big Cola’s secret might be that they only use sugar from one specific plantation in Mexico that has been touched by a man named Carlos on Tuesday, whereas Genericola uses sugar touched by Manuel on Wednesday.
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