Baked beans
Way back when I lived in the UK I read an article about baked beans. It was a comparison between Heinz (Watties here in NZ) and Tesco (budget) brand. It said that there were significantly more baked beans in the branded Heinz can.
I carried out an experiment to compare the contents of Watties and Budget brand beans. The result was that
I counted 311 beans in a Budget brand can and 430 in a Watties can. That’s a huge difference. I also weighed the beans after they’d been drained for 30 minutes, but the results weren’t relevant. Budget brand has a thin sauce that runs off easily and Watties has a thick sauce that doens’t drain in a collander. I guess I could have heated them.
We also had a blind taste test. Both of my children and an adult relative decided they liked the taste of the Watties beans best.
I have since bought a can of Pams’ baked beans and will do a similar test when the time comes to open it.
Happy money saving.
I don’t really care for the generic named food products…there is always this feeling that essential ingredient has been either halved or left out so that it tastes – not so nice…
lately I have been trying to buy organic or ‘free range’ sort of stuff.
it might be a bit more expensive but somehow it’s more filling and so I use less
Generic products are very often made in the same factories as the better known ones, but with adulterations and dilutions made to cut costs. Not so sure about baked beans though, as it would be far cheaper to grow and manufacture them in China (huge growers of… pretty much everything and no labour laws to speak of…) I really think it’s a matter of getting what you pay for though, and there is often a very false economy to these products. I often wonder if the same applies to the generic pharmaceuticals that the Government insists on using in the public health system. I hope not…