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Tried and Tasted: Baked Beans

The popularity of baked beans should not be underestimated. An almost staple part of the UK diet, baked beans are heaped on toast, on baked potatoes, alongside breakfast items and thrown into casseroles and stews. Cheap to buy, baked beans are packed with fibre and full of vitamins and minerals. Even better news is that many of the brands are reducing the salt content in their products. The Team, who love their baked beans decided to have a look at what’s available and how do the calories and nutrition stack up…

 

Table 1: Baked Beans Compared

Brand	Sainsburys, Reduced Sugar & Salt	Morrisons, Eat Smart	Tesco, Light Choices	Weight Watchers
Rating	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
Comments	A lot of calories, but not so much taste, disappointing.	These looked like the odd one out of the bunch due to the stronger sauce, but won us round once in our tummies	Looks and tastes like regular baked beans, no low calorie tell tale signs here	Proving low calorie doesn’t have to mean low taste Weight Watchers wins this round of tried and tasted
Appearance	Looked appetising but…	Smaller beans and a darker sauce than the others	Big beans!	Slightly paler than other with lots of sauce
Taste	Surprisingly bland	Rich tomato sauce, which some found too much	Consensus was tastes like Heinz	Moderately creamy tomato sauce; very pleasant
Texture	Beans themselves were rather dry	Just right	Filling	Firm but  palatable
Serving Size	½ Can/210g	½ Can/210g	½ Can/210g	½ Can/207.5g
Calories/ serving kcal	168	147	150	136
Fat/serving g	1.1	0.8	1.1	0.4

 

Table 2: Baked Beans Compared

Brand	Branston, 50% Reduced Salt & Sugar
Rating	Good
Comments	Verifying Branston are good at more than just sauces, these were another welcome tin to our tasting get together
Appearance	Good balance between beans and sauce
Taste	Lacked the usual beanie taste
Texture	Just right
Serving Size	½ Can/210g
Calories/ serving kcal	151
Fat/serving g	0.6

 

Conclusion

Firstly, let’s dispel the myth that a baked bean is a baked bean…the brands tried and tasted showed a difference in appearance and texture and they definitely did not all taste the same.

The top two brands, Weight Watchers and Tesco, Light Choices were a cut above the others on taste. Weight Watchers came through to win the day with the added bonus they are lower on calories than most. There is a 32 calorie difference between the Weight Watchers product and the bottom runner from Sainsbury’s.

Worth always remembering to check out labels and different brands even on the old staples in the diet.

 

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= Good | = Ok | = Poor

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