Know your sarnie

Stale, tasteless and over-priced - Britain's favourite lunchtime snack is a daily letdown for millions, a damning report has claimed.

The art of making the humble sandwich has yet to be mastered by many of the biggest high street chains, experts said.

From Marks & Spencer to Sainsbury's and Boots, consumer watchdogs tucked in to undercooked chicken, limp lettuce, shrivelled cucumber and soggy bread.

Tuna was often found to be tasteless and cheese rubbery in an industry worth £3billion a year. With prices up to £3, sandwiches were described as expensive and underfilled in many cases.

Tasters from The Consumers' Association magazine Which? tried 36 of the most popular sandwiches - cheese, tuna and chicken - and refused to give any of them more than seven marks out of ten.

'If you really want a satisfying sandwich for lunch, you might as well get up early and make your own,' the panel concluded.

Coffee Republic, Pret A Manger, Tesco and Waitrose came out best, while Boots, Starbucks and Marks & Spencer were most disappointing.

More expensive sandwiches sometimes 'tried too hard to impress', mixing fancy-sounding combinations whose flavours did not always go well together, said the panel. And just because a sandwich was dearer, it did not mean it was better quality.

All three Starbucks sandwiches were branded 'unbalanced, limp and unpleasant' while a chicken sandwich from Marks & Spencer turned experts' stomachs because it contained pink meat.