Stocking Up: Canned Corn Comparison!

[Pamcake]

So, today I was in the grocery store and the end-aisle promo was DelMonte canned veggies. They were $0.79 a can, so picked up a couple corn & green beans wondering, is this a better deal than at the "Stock Up Store"?

Always having wondered if the vegetables sold at ALDI were a better or worse value for the dollar, than the more expensive, brand-name veggies, I decided to do a direct comparison. I had some Happy Harvest corn in the pantry (exp date Sept 2011), and I bought a can of DelMonte corn today for the purpose of comparison.

I figured that the cheaper, other-brand canned corn would have less actual corn in the can (& more water) to make it cheaper to purchase, and therefore NOT a good value.

I did a test to see.

Their stated can weights were the same but the nutrition info was different per serving, even though the serving size was exactly the same. Interesting that the calorie content of the same serving differed by 20!!! (Aldi's, 80. DelMonte, 60).

So, I thought, what are the ingredients--did the cheap stuff have fillers or wierd carbohydrate stabilizers added? No, the only Ingredients: Corn, Water, (& salt--the Aldi brand had salt but not the DelMonte).

The Contenders: Note can lining in the Aldi brand! Wonder why...

The Setup: 10 minutes timed passive draining, then weighed the corn & juices, in grams to be more accurate.

The Results: DelMonte: Juice, 284 gm; Corn, 277 gm.

The Results: HappyHarvest: Juice, 286 gm; Corn, 266 gm.

Bottom-line Costs:
DelMonte (@ $0.99): 0.357 cents per ounce of corn pieces
________(@ $0.79): 0.285 cents per ounce of corn pieces
HappyHarvest (@ $0.79): 0.296 cents per ounce of corn pieces

Conclusion: Was pleasantly surprised.
If you want brand-name corn, get it on sale (and it is 79 cents/can right now at Meijer in Greenwood anyway).
Otherwise, the HappyHarvest corn is the better deal.

You might ask, "Pamcake what did you do with all that corn, then?"
I might answer, "I cooked them the same and we ate them".
You might ask, "well, which one tasted better to your husband?"
I might answer, "the corn that had the salt in it".

Of note, the older can of inexpensive corn had an ever-so-slight dingy grey color to it, and today's corn was brighter. This was not evident until they were side-by-side on a pure white corelle plate, however. I do not have any older, brand-name corn to compare colors fairly, so I am unable to really draw any conclusion about that aspect.

 

[E5RANGER375]

Great review Pamcake!! thank you!

 

[Steve]

Keep your eyes peeled on the Marsh ads. Every so often they do a "10 for $5.00" ad on their Del Monte brand vegs. When they do, I buy 2 cases of corn, a case of green beans, a case of peas, and a case of carrots and drop them off at our local food pantry.

For $30.00, I can use all the good karma I can get.

 

[Scutter01]

How did the taste compare?

 

[E5RANGER375]

I personaly think the aldis brand taste more like real corn. but I also like army food, so .........

 

[03A3]

Steve I commend your for taking the time to help others. You must have a good heart.

Pamcake Good writeup. Thank you for putting that up.
I've wondered about the nutritional differences between different brands of canned goods.

I need to look into this on what I have stocked and see how it compares.
I'm having a Senior moment right now and can't remember the name of the store where I've bought alot of my canned goods.

 

[fatduk1963]

looks like off to Aldi I will be a going .

 

[booey50]

I think aldi's brand corn has more sugar in it. That would explain the 20 more calories per serving...I really like aldi's corn...but stay away from Walmart brand corn they suck...

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

That can lining is to keep your corn fresh longer and prevent it from picking stuff up out of the surface of the can. Of course, being plastic, now you're eating slightly increased levels of PCBs, so I guess that's a trade off you'll have to work out. I believe I'd still prefer the can with the lining.

 

[theweakerbrother]

Salts are corrosive and cans often have liners in them. You should be able to call or write Aldi to find out what they use; you can do the same with most "in house" brands to ask what kind of lining it is and/or why they use it. I used to work for a big grocery company out of Ohio and helping them populate massive FAQs for questions people had for products. This was one that happened fairly regularly. Since the produce has salt added, it WILL erode/discolor/impart non-neutral flavors to the product inside the can. Some products are near-impossible to buy without linings. Some within our culture's palate have even evolved their taste preferences into preferring canned items that have the can flavor imparted. Don't believe me? Pick up a can of tomato sauce or high acid-non-sugary canned item. It will have a similar lining. If it does, chances are, it also has some heavy metal sounding additive to it... I don't remember what it was, but it sounded something similar to titanium dioxide. Why was it added? Culture had grown to accept a slightly metallic taste from canned tomato paste and thought it tasted funny when cans started to be lined with plastics to remove the metallic leeching and added a filler/flavor to MAKE it taste slightly metallic. It sounds nuts, but it was also true.

A lot of store brand and in house items are made by the same facilities and companies as the larger label brands. This can be done for several reasons.

1. Strongarm tactics by the retailer stating that they're going to try and absorb the market by a generic in house brand.

2.Strongarm tactics done by the major food label company stating that in order to get product "y" from us, you also must let us make your in house product so that no matter what, we get your business.

3. To fulfill any possible "downtime" by major food manufacturers. There no demand for your specific product? Time is money and its better to make "x" than not make it and you have to pay your wages to workers during the slow time to keep them happy and paid during the busy time. Overrun a product, slap a label on it with another brand and sell it as a private label food. This is not always true, but does often happen in the food industry.

Of course, there are often times when a major company makes a product for a private label store brand and it really is NOT the same product due to formulation "proprietary recipes." There are also times when quality control is an issue. They pull test samples from a lot and it contains too many sticks, stems, poor coloration and rather than tarnish the name of a major company, they sell it as private label product. There is nothing wrong with it, nor is it unsafe... its just not an A+ product.

One of the "dirtiest" products you can buy happens to be tomato paste, if I remember right. Its part of the reason why I remember reading about it because it was the most interesting. It has more parts per million of bugs/insects/worms/dead mice/animal feces than a lot of other food products. It's still safe because its been processed at such a high temperature and none of that is intentional in manufacturing but think about the process. Giant harvesting machines picking fields clean, sorting the product and taking the least desirable tomato product that will be boiled en masse to make an indistinguishable paste. Keep that in mind when you're enjoying your favorite pizza or spaghetti. Bon appetit!

Part of the above reason makes me chuckle everytime I see a self-righteous vegan/vegetarian ranting about the evils of consuming animal products as they eat their fake-cheese no butter pizza (a fair amount of animals die as combines harvest corn/wheat) and drinking their Guinness (contains an ingredient made from fish bladders).

Whew! Long post!

 

[JetGirl]

Corny thread.

 

[swatdoc]

You might ask, "Pamcake what did you do with all that corn, then?"
I might answer, "I cooked them the same and we ate them".
You might ask, "well, which one tasted better to your husband?"
I might answer, "the corn that had the salt in it".

True this!!!

 

[cedarhillfarms11]

I have worked just down the road from NK Hurst company in Indy for years an never knew that the public can buy from them. They have great prices on beans, peas, barley and much more. Products are packaged very well. hurstbeans.com or call 1-800-ham-beens the receptionists are very helpful. Orders take three days to put together.

 

[longbow]

The lining could be because the aldi can is cheaper metal and thinner... Can you measure wall thickness with a caliper?

 

[Pamcake]

The lining could be because the aldi can is cheaper metal and thinner... Can you measure wall thickness with a caliper?

Ummm.... that would be a no...

Guess you'll have to find an answer that question on your own ! ! ! !

 

[Pamcake]

I think aldi's brand corn has more sugar in it. That would explain the 20 more calories per serving...I really like aldi's corn...but stay away from Walmart brand corn they suck...

I don't know what variety of corn the different brands use, or if they have control over what species their farmers plant, but there were no other added carbohydrate/sugars in either cans' ingredients list. Just the corn, and water, plus/minus salt.

It is possible that different varieties have different sugar:water ratios, therefore more or less calories per measure of corn as noted on the labels? Do we have any corn farmers here that can enlighten us on this one?

 

[SmileDocHill]

I don't know what variety of corn the different brands use, or if they have control over what species their farmers plant, but there were no other added carbohydrate/sugars in either cans' ingredients list. Just the corn, and water, plus/minus salt.

It is possible that different varieties have different sugar:water ratios, therefore more or less calories per measure of corn as noted on the labels? Do we have any corn farmers here that can enlighten us on this one?

I'm in no way a part of this industry but what little chemistry knowledge I have retained sparks this thought...the difference in the salt concentration of the solution could effect the amount of water each piece of corn absorbs. (semi permeable membrane) I cannot tell from the pictures but did one brand of corn appear to have "fuller" pieces? This would effect the number of pieces that would fit in a unit of measure and therefore the calories per unit of measure.

 

[Pamcake]

I'm in no way a part of this industry but what little chemistry knowledge I have retained sparks this thought...the difference in the salt concentration of the solution could effect the amount of water each piece of corn absorbs. (semi permeable membrane) I cannot tell from the pictures but did one brand of corn appear to have "fuller" pieces? This would effect the number of pieces that would fit in a unit of measure and therefore the calories per unit of measure.

No... I did visually study the kernels themselves, because I figured maybe the cheaper one would have tiny, broken kernels and the brand name would have big, gorgeous, uniform kernels, but alas I really could not tell any consistent difference with the naked eye.

You bring up a good point, though.
Maybe we'll have to repeat this test, with both brands salted (or unsalted)!

 

[outdoorsman]

Thats a great idea but if you are stocking up on corn incase of an emergency situation, I would just buy the cheaper stuff in canned goods because if your hungry your going to eat it whether its cheaper and doesnt taste name brand or not! Honestly when it comes to canned veggies, taste isnt much different but things like ravioli really dont taste as good in the cheap brands

 

[longbow]

sounds like you need to add a caliper and micrometer to your preps..............