I have beans on my menu twice this week over on my Getting Ready for Rations on Retirement blog, usually when I am splitting a can of baked beans I upend it for an hour or so before I open it, just so that the sauce distributes evenly throughout the can ... this time I forgot. So to get an even distribution of beans and sauce I decided to tip it into the pan and then spoon out half. I thought I might as well get a perfect split so I weighed the pan.
I was pretty shocked really that a good brand such as Heinz is still short-changing it's customers. I have complained to them once before when I was doing a challenge and had cause to weigh my beans, they sent me a £2 voucher. I have also complained many years ago to Asda about their Smartprice beans, they were seriously underweight, they too sent me a £2 gift card.
Now I didn't do this for any reward but more because I was really annoyed.
Branded beans are now quite an expensive thing to buy, these Heinz beans were bought on offer at £3.50 for a four pack, usually they are £1.40 per can each ... obviously I was feeling flush that week whenever it was ... as I'm someone who usually buys the supermarkets basic lines at under 30p a tin this price is astonishing.
Anyway I ate my lunch, half a can of beans on two slices of toast, and then jumped on the computer to send a politely worded message to Heinz via their website. Just pointing out that as beans are cooked in the cans there should be no room for any discrepancy of weights and if they knew that somehow beans magically lost weight on cooking they should start the process with more weight in the cans and then left it at that.
On the way to Mum's yesterday, with the car boot loaded up with Alan's carpet cleaner ready to clean Mum's carpets we were chatting away about all sorts of things and I mentioned the low weight of my beans and of the previous cans from this batch and Alan started doing the maths, as only an engineer would. He worked out that if they are making millions of cans of beans per year and a good percentage of them are actually underweight the company is making huge profits from selling 'missing beans'.
Yes, we often have these sort of conversations!! 😄
And this was where this blog post was going to end, but ...
... I have just received this letter.
I only contacted them on Tuesday, so this is very quick work on their part. I am now the proud owner of two £3 vouchers, I didn't do any of this for that but nevertheless I am happy to have them.
The big questions is now do I buy more beans with my vouchers?
Checking the prices of the Heinz beans and Sainsbury's own brand beans as I was a few minutes ago to get things right for this post, has thrown up that the packs of six Heinz beans are currently on offer in Sainsbury's at just £4.75 if you have a Nectar card, I'm tempted, but maybe that's their plan ... get me hooked on Heinz baked beans as I used to be many years ago. 😀
Sue xx
Branson beans for me thanks. Husband often comments that various items seem underweight so maybe we need to take a hint from you and get out the scales. Catriona
ReplyDeleteMy Mum and Dad used to love Branston beans and I think Alan gets them occasionally, but I'm not so keen. Gosh I'm going to have everyone checking weights now aren't I ... which can only be a good thing!!
DeleteI can imagine you will have the whole country weighing their beans now. I am offered the organic Sainsbury's own on the smart shop savings most weeks I think they are 60p a tin to me otherwise I get the sainsbury's own if they on offer. I noticed on Sue's blogroll the other day that you had started your new blog (must have missed something) - will be popping over.
ReplyDeleteYes I started this blog just over a month ago and there has been a post every day. If you want to catch up the Archive is on the sidebar of that blog and you can get straight back to the first post.
DeletePS That's Sue in Suffolk by the way.
ReplyDeleteYes, I guessed. :-)
DeleteIt just shows that it pays to complain. I wish I had read this post before lunch as I just split a can of Heinz beans 3 ways for lunch for us and our visiting daughter. I could have weighed them first!
ReplyDeleteI bet you'll be weighing the next can. :-)
DeleteHow did you guess? 😂
DeleteHaha .....
DeleteThat really is an eye opener there, Sue. I'm sure the vouchers were sent out quickly to mollify you before word spread. I'm glad you made a post.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mention I had a blog, they might have slapped a silencing order on me ... haha. :-)
DeleteI live in the USA and pay the equivalent of £3 per can, so to think that Heinz are short changing me on beans is diabolical! They should be ashamed and shamed.
ReplyDeleteWow ... that is a LOT of money, especially if you are being short-changed. Yep ... I think they have been named and shamed in a small way on here!!
DeleteSorry forgot to add name to the above - I’m Mindo
ReplyDeleteThank you. xx
DeleteI think I would spend the vouchers and then be tempted to contact Trading Standards, telling them that this isn't the first time it has happened, that Heinz are very quick to respond with vouchers, but seem unable/unwilling to rectify the problem and let them start buying and weighing a few cans. After all, the policing of weights and measures, must be one of the reasons they were set up in the 1st place.
ReplyDeleteAlan has said something along those lines, so maybe there will be a follow on to this little episode.
DeleteWe never buy any Heinz/Kraft products. What a cheek under filling those tins. I think I'd donate those vouchers to a food bank. xxx
ReplyDeleteI would usually do something like that but I have been donating to the Food Bank here every week since I started the Challenge, so I might just keep these for myself.
DeleteWe like Aldi and Lidl own brands - luckily!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Yes, I usually like all the own brands and even the Smartprice level beans. I would much rather pay 28p for a tin than £1.40, after all they are all the same type of beans.
DeleteI'd say, if you like the taste of the Heinz's but those. they will be just about free.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think I will go and get some while they are on offer. As I'm only able to buy a couple of tins each month on my Points Ration they will last me a long time.
DeleteThat's good that you complained! I wonder if they are including the weight of the can and not just the contents? The next time I open a can of anything, I shall try to remember to weigh it! I don't have a digital scales like yours, though, so my results might not be very accurate!
ReplyDeleteNo it is the can contents that should be that weight. As a whole a can weighs in at approximately 465g. Digital scales are a game-changer aren't they, I wouldn't be without mine.
DeleteAverage Weight Legislation? Trading Standards? Sorry Heinz, that is a big, smelly load of bull-hockey.
ReplyDeleteEarlier in the year I had a phase (weeks & weeks) of having ½ a can of H. tomato soup & a sandwich for lunch every day. In order to do so I was emptying the can into two bowls, on scales.
Not once did I get 400g of soup. Every can was 390g. That is 10% which I paid for and they did not supply. Foolish me I did not complain because whilst I might get a voucher like you have, it would not change their shoddy business practices. I have something different for lunch now and will no longer buy any of their products.
I suspect this is a far more common issue and Alan's steering wheel calculations about the MILLIONS it will save them are spot on. It needs someone like Martin Lewis to get onto this . . .
Whatever the percentage it's all in their favour isn't it, and sadly it's the people that need a cheaper form of protein that are lining the big companies pockets. I doubt I will buy from Heinz again once I have spent my vouchers.
DeleteD'uh, not 10% . . . too early, not enough coffee,
ReplyDelete2.5% sorry.
Haha ... my maths is slightly off-piste first thing in the morning too. :-)
DeleteIt's not just the weight of what is the the tin you need to check. When you look at the list of ingredients the percentage of beans in the can varies hugely between manufacturer. Another thing that it is really best to make yourself.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I would never bother to make myself baked beans from scratch, it's such an occasional thing to eat. And living on WWII rations I doubt I would have the ingredients in my cupboard to do that. It's a good idea for anyone that needs to know exactly what their sauce is made from though. :-)
DeleteI make my own baked beans as those are very expensive here in Canada and I can usually make enough beans to equal 12 cans for less than what 4 cans cost. I am glad that you got those vouchers so quickly.
ReplyDeleteOh and I freeze them to be used as needed (we don't eat 12 cans of beans in a month).
God bless.
That sounds like a very cost effective way to do it. Once I have used up my stash of Heinz beans I'll go back to the supermarkets own label basic ones, at around 28p a can they are a brilliant buy.
DeleteI found this post to be a good laugh and at the same time...eye opening! I don't know why I'm shocked though! We should all weigh our potato chip bags too! Those are always half empty when you open them. But beans? I never even thought about them shortchanging us on the beans!
ReplyDeleteYes, as you can see us Brits are serious about our beans and about being short-changed. I can see a lot of my readers will be in their kitchens armed with scales over the weekend, checking on their various food products. What have I started!! :-)
DeleteExactly, it’s the people for whom a tin of Heinz baked beans is a main meal or part of a main family meal who are losing out. People like me who wouldn’t touch Heinz/Kraft or Nestle products with a barge pole are immune because I have the time and wherewithal to grow and make my own. Once you’ve eaten homemade baked beans (I slow-braise my freshly podded borlotti beans following a River Cafe recipe) with a homegrown roasted tomato, sweet pepper, chilli and smoked paprika sauce you would never eat a factory-produced version again. Have you ever grown chick peas or quinoa Sue. I eat a lot of both and would love to try growing my own. I am currently experimenting with growing ‘slips’ of sweet potatoes in a big pot and shoots have just appeared. Once the weather cools I will move the pot into the greenhouse and keep it warm and see if flowers appear. I have never grown sweet potatoes before but I am hoping it is similar to growing potatoes for Christmas, we shall see! Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly why I get so annoyed with big companies short-changing people. For some people a can of beans is, as you say, possibly the main protein part of a meal.
DeleteWhen I grew on a much larger scale in North Wales on our smallholding, I did try both chickpeas and quinoa. The chickpeas never germinated for me and the quinoa, whilst it did grow it died off before it had the chance to get the little buds on, so I never attempted it again, preferring to carry on growing the things we ate the most of. Sadly my three large pots of sweet potatoes weren't much of a success either, I did get some but they took absolutely ages and they were very small. But experimentation is always worth a go at isn't it, after all until you try you never know what will happen. (I didn't have a greenhouse but grew my crops on the hillside, in a polytunnel and in a net tunnel.) xx
I hadn't thought of weighing my cans or meats either, but I ought to be doing so. It's bad enough that they keep purposely and sneakily if you ask me, shrinking what you get. I was cooking sausage the other night and the package that was 16 ounces 4 years ago then 14 ounces, was now 12 ounces and not a penny cheaper! I told my husband we might well end up having to eat two packages of sausage when family is here at this rate.
ReplyDeleteYes, 'shrinkflation' is as big a problem as our currently non-stop rising prices isn't it. We all have to keep our eyes on the foods that we regularly consume and see how they are affected by both.
DeleteDoing challenges, as I have for a quite a few years now, means that I do tend to weigh a lot more things than most people, I'm not obsessed completely ... but nearly!! ;-)