Some canned food manufacturers shortchanging consumers, says watchdog

By RENEE KIRIONA

The question is not how you like your tomatoes but how many you think are in the can?

A probe into canned foods has found that when it comes to tomatoes, Delmaine Italian has more ma'ma mia, and Oak brand the least.

In its Canned or Conned? article Consumer magazine compared the solid and liquid content as well as the price of a range of canned food brands.

Of the nine varieties surveyed, Delmaine came out first because it had the most solid content (84 per cent) and the cheapest price. Oak weighed in with 57 per cent solid content and the second most expensive price.

Heinz Wattie's, which owns the Oak brand, was busy defending its product yesterday.

Nigel Comer, the managing director for Wattie's, described the magazine's approach as being overly academic.

"The real test of value is taste and quality. Buying and eating food is not an academic exercise.

"The country's wine makers will be thankful the magazine is not assessing the value of their wines on the basis of ingredient weight."

Mr Nigel also defended the company's Oak baked beans, which also featured poorly in the survey, having the least solid content and ranking as the second most expensive.

"Putting more beans in our product might win the applause of Consumer magazine, but it would destroy our recipe and cost us the confidence of customers," Mr Comer said.

But David Russell, chief executive of the Consumers' Institute, which owns the magazine, said he would stick to the findings.

"We did what most consumers do - walk into a supermarket and buy the product. The only difference is that we analysed the products but as far as taste goes we'll leave that up to you."

The only Oak product to come out of the survey with credit was the canned peaches, which ranked third highest in solid content and price out of seven brands.

The survey found that supermarket brands were good value on the basis of cost per 100g of solid. It also found that Wattie's products were consistently more expensive.

ABOUT THE TEST

Consumers' Institute selected five types of popular canned food (tomatoes, tuna, peaches, pineapple and baked beans) and went looking for the major brands available in supermarkets. Its buyers in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch bought more than 200 cans and sent them to an independent laboratory for testing. The lab strained the contents and measured the remaining solids after the liquid had drained away.