Nutritionists and doctors spend a lot of time and energy vilifying canned soups as unhealthy. Their opinion is based on traditionally high levels of fat and salt. But Consumer Reports says it’s found canned soups that are both tasty and good for you!
A really good, and good-for-you – but expensive – canned Chicken Noodle Soup…
If you can’t trust respected – perhaps even iconic – Consumer Reports (CR) for accurate, objective information – who can you trust? The venerated institution has been giving the world the low-down on ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ in just about every product category since 1936.
We’ve heard from CR in recent years about food products whose wholesomeness and nutritional value has been hotly debated. Notably, CR stepped in with a definitive ‘ruling’ on ‘Lunchables’-type kids’ snack packs which resulted in the products being banned from some school lunchrooms.
Turning the tables
But now, the tables appear to have turned. CR is siding – cautiously – with the legions of folks who were brought up on and still love traditional canned soups.
CR’s Alice Oglethorpe summed up prevailing public opinion about soup in a few well-chosen words:
“Soup is one of the greatest comfort foods around. Nearly 90 percent of consumers said they had recently bought some, according to a survey from the market research company Mintel,” she re-ported. “It satisfies many needs: About half said they eat soup for lunch or dinner, but also when they’re sick, and some even have it for breakfast.”
What they did
So, CR decided to test and review a selection of canned soups to see just how they rate both on nutrition and diner appeal. They also included some examples from the new and growing cadre of refrigerated and frozen soups now available at most supermarkets.
“To find out which soups offer the best combination of taste and nutrition, Consumer Reports tested 30 of them in three popular types—10 each of chicken noodle, minestrone, and lentil,” Oglethorpe recounts. “We bought canned, refrigerated, and frozen varieties, and evaluated them for flavour, texture, nutrition, and additives. Read on for all the intel you need to buy and serve better soup.”
‘Read on’, indeed!
What they found
No surprise to me… But the usual suspects didn’t appear at all in either the best or worst categories of canned soups as rated by CR. Not a single red-and-wite Campbell’s label to be found. Ditto, the popular store brands, which folks are turning to more and more these days for lower prices.
One supermarket brand that did figure prominently in the CR reviews was Progresso. The brand has been around for more than 100 years, but had flown under the radar of many shoppers due to a lack of aggressive promotion. Now, it’s under the General Mills umbrella and its brand awareness is slowly but steadily rising.
According to Progresso’s website the brand, “offers a wide variety of ready-to-serve canned soups, including popular Traditional Chicken Noodle, Rich & Hearty, Light, and Vegetable Classics lines. These gluten-free and no-artificial-flavor options are often considered convenient, though some varieties are high in sodium.”
The takeaway
In spite of the price and availability issues which some of the reviewed soups must labour under, I have to put Progresso at the top of my list.
Amy’s Kitchen, Pacific Foods, Rao’s Homemade, and Healthy Choice all distinguished themselves in the CR tests. Though they were generally rated only medium for flavour and/or nutrition.
A Maggie’s comparison…
Just for fun, I looked up the prices, today, for Progresso, Healthy Choice, Campbell’s and store brand chicken noodle soup. And an interesting hierarchy emerged…
- Healthy Choice: $7.90
- Progresso: $5.50
- Campbell’s condensed: $2.49
- No Name condensed: $1.29
Low, and behold! A Great Divide appears between the ready-to heat and the condensed (add water) brands. Which suggests to me that there are two ‘classes’ of canned soup makers in the industry: Those who look at soup as an art, and those who view it as an every-day staple…
My take
I’ve been aware of Progresso soups for decades. My Dad’s Mom was a big fan, as she was of Habitant soups. Both of those brands come in large cans, ready to heat and eat without adding any water or milk. That’s another thing I’ve always liked about both. And it’s only fair to add that Healthy Choice is also ready to heat.
Just on principle, I can’t endorse the majority of the soups CR rated as ‘good’. They’re boutique, or luxe-brands that one would expect to be tastier and healthier than the mass brands. And they also suffer from limited availability. The worst offenders are brands available only at their home stores, such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Panera.
The good news is, the widest variety of the soups CR rated is probably available at Walmart, followed by Target. And I’ll bet the prices are lowest at those two budget-conscious outlets, too.
My bottom line…
For me, it all comes down to the olden, golden rule: Homemade is best. And by far the least expen-sive. Home cooks and resto chefs alike have been making their own hearty, unique soups from leftovers and beloved basic pantry ingredients for hundreds of years. (See photo, top of page.)
And the payoff is, you get to control the fat, salt and other ingredients that go into your own soup. And you can serve it to family and friends content in the knowledge that it contains no unwanted, unpronounceable, indigestible additives!
Here in Canada, it’s ‘soup season’ three seasons of the year. Go for it! Make soup a star more often in your culinary productions!
~ Maggie J.