There’s something uniquely British about a tin of baked beans. It sits in the cupboard of every student flat, every family kitchen, and — let’s be honest — probably every doomsday bunker between here and John O’Groats. For most of us, “beans” means one thing: Heinz. But a few months ago I fell down a rabbit hole that changed the way I do my weekly shop. I’d like to take you down it with me.
A quick recap: back at the start of the year I ran the numbers on Heinz against Asda’s own-brand baked beans. The results floored me then, and having re-run the comparison this week — with Branston thrown in for good measure — the story has, if anything, got more interesting. So here we are again, three tins on the kitchen counter and a pencil in my hand.
The shelf: three tins, three very different price tags
Let’s start where the supermarket trolley starts — with the price sticker. At Asda today (April 2026):
- Heinz Beanz in a Rich Tomato Sauce, 415g — £1.38 (that’s £3.33 per kilogram)
- Branston Baked Beans, 410g — £0.85 (£2.07 per kilogram)
- Asda Baked Beans in a Rich Tomato Sauce, 410g — £0.42 (£1.02 per kilogram)
Stand those three tins next to each other and the Asda tin costs less than a third of the Heinz. Put another way, you could buy a tin of Asda beans every single day for almost two weeks for what a Heinz household would spend on six. Branston sits quietly in the middle — a fact I’ll come back to, because there’s something slightly theatrical about Branston and we should talk about it.
Branston: the “posh” beans
When I first wrote about this back in January, a friend referred to Branston as “posh beans” and, I won’t lie, it made me laugh out loud. There’s a bit of truth in it. Branston positions itself as the thinking person’s alternative — a bit craftier, a bit more thick-sauced, a bit more “look at me, I chose something different.” At 85p they sit awkwardly between the mass market and the bargain shelf. The question is: do they earn it?
Nutritionally, they actually do — partly. More on that shortly.
The taste test: can you actually tell?
I want to be honest here. When I tried Asda’s own-brand against Heinz, side by side, on the same toast, on the same day, I could not tell them apart. Neither could the people I tested them on. I’m not claiming this proves they come out of the same factory — that’s a stubborn urban myth that Heinz have always denied — but the sensory gap is, at best, marginal. Asda’s beans are thick enough, tomatoey enough and sweet enough that a Heinz eater served them unknowingly simply doesn’t notice.
Branston is genuinely different. The sauce is a shade thicker and a touch more peppery (there’s actual white pepper in the recipe, which we’ll come to). Some people prefer that. Others find it a bit busy on a piece of toast. It’s a legitimate preference, not a manufactured one.
The numbers that really matter: what’s in the tin
This is where it gets interesting. All three manufacturers print their nutrition panel on the label. Heinz’s figures are “as sold,” Asda’s are “hob-heated” (water evaporates slightly when warmed, so figures concentrate a touch), and Branston’s are “as sold.” It’s a minor technical asterisk, but worth noting before we compare like-for-like.
Here is the per-100g breakdown, pulled directly from the current product listings:
| Per 100g | Heinz 415g | Asda 410g | Branston 410g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy (kcal) | 81 | 91 | 85 |
| Fat | 0.4g | <0.5g | 0.6g |
| Saturates | <0.1g | <0.1g | 0.1g |
| Sugars | 4.3g | 4.2g | 4.7g |
| Fibre | 3.9g | 4.6g | 5.9g |
| Protein | 4.8g | 4.9g | 4.6g |
| Salt | 0.6g | 0.47g | 0.6g |
Read that table carefully, because the result is the opposite of what decades of television advertising have trained us to assume.
Asda wins on salt — 0.47g per 100g versus Heinz’s 0.6g. That is roughly 22% less salt, which is a meaningful gap if you watch your blood pressure or you’re feeding children.
Asda wins on sugar, albeit narrowly. 4.2g versus 4.3g is nothing to write home about, but it is certainly not the other way round.
Asda wins on protein and fibre over Heinz. 4.9g protein versus 4.8g, 4.6g fibre versus 3.9g.
Branston wins the fibre crown overall at 5.9g per 100g — that’s 51% more fibre than Heinz, and it’s down to Branston using a slightly higher bean-to-tomato ratio (51% beans, 38% tomatoes). If fibre is what you’re shopping for, Branston is genuinely the best of the three. It is also the only one using reduced-sodium sea salt, which is a pleasantly unshowy bit of recipe care.
Heinz wins on… honestly, calories, by a handful per 100g. That’s it. In a market where Heinz has built a brand on “goodness in a tin,” their own nutrition panel tells you the own-brand next to them is, on almost every metric, equal or better.
When I first ran this comparison back in January, I remembered Heinz edging it on fibre. Looking now, I was wrong — Asda beat them on fibre too. I was, if anything, too generous to Heinz first time round.
The ingredients list: what they’re actually putting in
The ingredients lists tell their own story.
Heinz: Beans (50%), Tomatoes (36%), Water, Sugar, Spirit Vinegar, Modified Cornflour, Salt, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract.
Asda: Haricot Beans (49%), Tomatoes (36%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Paprika, Onion Powder, Paprika Extract, Flavouring.
Branston: Beans (51%), Tomatoes (38%), Water, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Reduced Sodium Sea Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Salt, Paprika, White Pepper, Spices, Flavourings.
Heinz uses vague “spice extracts” and “herb extract” — classic big-brand recipe-protection language. Asda and Branston are both more specific, naming paprika and (in Branston’s case) white pepper and onion. Branston is notably the only tin that names a deliberately healthier salt formulation. None of the three contains anything scary.
Heinz is certified vegan; Asda and Branston are marked as suitable for vegetarians only. If that matters to you, bear it in mind.
Made by whom, exactly?
It is often claimed that own-brand beans are made on the same production lines as the big names. Heinz has consistently denied this. What the labels actually show is:
- Heinz is made by H.J. Heinz Foods UK Ltd., London.
- Branston is made by Princes Ltd., Liverpool, under licence from Mizkan Euro Ltd (the brand owner).
- Asda is simply “packed for Asda” in Leeds or Antrim — the label does not name the manufacturer.
Princes is one of the UK’s largest food-can manufacturers and supplies several retailers with own-brand tinned goods. It would be unsurprising, though unconfirmed by the label, if Asda’s own-brand line came from a similar operation. Heinz’s separate facility is clearly stated — so whatever the urban myth says, Heinz beans and Asda beans do not come from the same place.
The 4-pack trick: free money if you know where to look
Here’s the small print that saves you actual cash. At the time of writing:
- A single Asda tin (410g): 42p
- A four-pack of Asda tins (4 × 410g): £1.50 — which works out at 37.5p per tin
You save 4.5p per tin by buying the four-pack. It doesn’t sound like much. But if you’re a student eating four tins a week — which is entirely plausible — that’s an extra £9.36 in your pocket a year, for the identical product. It is genuinely free money. Buy the four-pack.
Branston’s multibuy does similar: £3.00 for four tins (75p each), saving you 10p per tin over the 85p single price.
Heinz, meanwhile, is where the “Any 3 for £3” offer effectively turns £1.38 into £1.00 per tin — still well over double the four-pack Asda price.
So what justifies Heinz’s £1.38?
This is the honest question. Heinz’s beans are not better than Asda’s on any measurable dimension the label shows. They taste effectively indistinguishable in a blind test. So what exactly are we paying for?
Three things, really. First, brand memory. “Beanz Meanz Heinz” is one of the most successful advertising slogans ever written. It ran for decades. It shaped a generation’s idea of what a tin of beans should taste like. You are literally paying for that history, whether you want to or not.
Second, shelf position and trust. Heinz has earned its position over a century of consistent product. For people shopping in a rush, who do not want to think about it, Heinz is the safe choice. That certainty has a price.
Third, vegan certification and the health halo. Heinz has invested in certifications and carefully worded claims (“1 of your 5 a day,” “high in fibre”) that do a lot of work on the shelf. They are entitled to charge for that work. Whether the gap to own-brand justifies the extra 96p is, increasingly, a reasonable question.
The verdict
If I had to write this as a simple chart, it would look like this.
Best for budget: Asda 410g, £0.42 single or £0.375 in a four-pack. Under a third of Heinz’s price and, by the label, marginally healthier too.
Best for fibre: Branston 410g, £0.85. Genuinely the highest-fibre of the three and the only one using reduced-sodium sea salt.
Best for vegans: Heinz 415g, £1.38. The only one of the three carrying formal vegan certification, though the ingredient lists on the other two contain nothing animal-derived.
Best if you genuinely can’t tell the difference: Asda, every time. Four-pack. No regrets.
For my money, I buy the four-pack of Asda and don’t look back. I’ll occasionally keep a tin of Branston for a change of pace. Heinz gets a nostalgic look in the shopping aisle and a pass.
If you’ve been buying Heinz on autopilot, try a single Asda tin this week. Blindfold your family if you have to. I’ll wager nobody notices — except your bank balance.
Prices and nutrition figures checked on asda.com, April 2026. Supermarket promotions change frequently; your mileage may vary on the week.