With the cost of living still high and grocery prices rising almost everywhere in recent years, more and more Italians are choosing to shop at discount stores. Convenience remains one of the main motivations, but today these signs are no longer synonymous with low quality products. In fact, our comparative tests demonstrate that, alongside references that are less convincing, many discount brand products obtain good or even excellent results, so much so that they compete with much more well-known brands.
MD is among the main discount chains present in Italy, with approximately 820 stores and 9,000 employees distributed across all regions. In the latest comparative tests, several MD brand products have achieved positive ratings and awards such as Best Buy or Best Green Choice, while others have highlighted room for improvement. Altroconsumo has collected the MD products that in the last 18 months – including the 2026 tests – have stood out for their quality, dividing them by category.
Food
Among the MD brand foods with a good score that emerged from our tests are confirmed:
Among the products that did not convince in the 2026 pesto test, only three products achieved an “acceptable” rating:
Drinks
Among the drinks promoted by our tests, the leading product remains:
Among the new features for 2026 we also note:
Animal food
Among animal foods we distinguish:
Home care
The best MD home care product that emerged from our tests is:
Also worth mentioning:
Personal care
Among the personal care products the following stood out:
Other products with positive ratings:
Choosing a discount store does not automatically mean giving up quality. The results of our tests show that even among the MD brand products there are references that represent excellent choices in terms of quality-price ratio, however flanked by others that do not reach the same standards. For this reason it is worth going beyond prejudices: not all discount products are the same and not all deserve to be promoted or rejected regardless. Consulting comparative tests is the best way to fill your cart with products that combine convenience and quality, especially in a period in which containing spending has become a necessity for many Italian families.
