Returning from shopping, I realised I had forgotten to buy my favourite cake, a Victoria sponge.

Having the necessary butter, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla essence and icing sugar (six items) I decided I would enjoy "homemade" for a change.

I am no Delia Smith but the taste of my cake was so very different to my normal shop-bought sponge I resolved to study the list of ingredients next time I bought ready-made.

What a shock I was in for as I started to count the often unpronounceable list of ingredients: 34 in all, such as dishosphates, gloucono delta lactone, anthocyanins and so on.

I decided to check other everyday items. Spaghetti bolognese: 29 ingredients; ravioli: 21; cheese and onion quiche: 36.

With so many chemicals needed to preserve, colour and flavour factory-produced foods, it certainly makes sense to make your own whenever time allows.

-Michael Parker, Lewes Road, Brighton