Hacker News Reader

Apparently in the UK baked beans are fortified with vitamin C because baked beans on toast is such a common staple food for college students.

View on HN

This was a compelling idea, so I looked it up. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be true: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253034146

I don’t know that they’d need to be, though. British-style baked beans come in tomato sauce. I just checked my tins, and they’re 36% tomato according to the ingredients list. Unfortunately they’re not that cheap anymore. We pay over CDN$2+tax per tin these days if you buy the multipack. A far cry from the CDN$1.50 all-in those Tesco beans would be.

It's worse than you think — those are the more expensive brand in that supermarket.

The cheap baked beans from the same supermarket are just under 1/3 that price per tin: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/299669062

Interesting, it's something I heard from a co-worker who grew up in the UK. So perhaps its some sort of urban legend there. Thanks for the check!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com