A mum's post about ditching Heinz beans in favour of a supermarket's own brand has had shoppers saying they're all doing the same. With Heinz hiking prices considerably over recent months, more and more customers are looking for alternatives.
As the branded Beanz and Sausages now costs £2 a tin, mum Cat Gallagher shared how she opted for Sainsbury's home brand version instead - costing a quarter of the price.
"These are 52p per tin and imho as good (actually, for that price, better) as the brand name," she said on a budgeting Facebook group.
The mum-of-two said her two sons, aged 14 and 12, can't tell the difference either.
And she's clearly not the only one to think so. She was inundated with replies from shoppers who said they too have swapped to Sainsbury's.
"These are much better than Heinz. The sausages are way better," said one. "We love these too yummy!" said another.
One shopper said they were the 'only ones I buy now', with another adding: "I’ve been and got beans from Sainsbury’s today. They are decent and a good price."
Dozens of people responded to say they have swapped to different supermarket own brands and prefer them to the branded ones, with one saying 'How do Heinz justify their costs?'
"I think the Tesco own are much better than Heinz," said one shopper. "The last time I had the Heinz ones I found them tasteless and watery."
"My family actually prefer the Aldi version," said another. "I bought the expensive ones one day, didn't tell them, and they didn't like them!!"
A few of the shoppers said they buy Asda's Just Essentials beans and sausages for 42p a tin, with another saying they enjoy Lidl's version.
It comes after we reported at the weekend how shoppers say they are making savings by switching from their usual supermarket to Sainsbury's.
Following our article about price hikes at Asda, a number of customers responded to say they made the unlikely switch to the retailer, which was traditionally known as being among the most expensive.
Among them was mum-of-six Caitlin Rolle, who says she's not only impressed with the retailer's Aldi Price Match scheme - which now has over 25% more products matched than last autumn - but believes the quality of food is better than you can get elsewhere.
Kraft Heinz says its recipe for beans hasn't changed and it remains committed to 'giving consumers great tasting and nutritious products without compromising on the quality'.
A spokesperson said: "Like the rest of the food industry, we continue to face significantly increased production costs – whether it’s ingredients, energy, or packaging – and rising inflation. Our energy prices alone have increased by 609% since 2019.
“We’re absorbing costs wherever we can, however we've unfortunately had to increase our prices to retailers – a measure that continues to be a last resort.
“We understand the pressures consumers are currently facing. To help offset these, we’re working collaboratively with retailers to offer great value through regular promotions and promotional cycles across a range of our products. We’ve adapted our offer to consumers with different pack sizes, value ranges and lower price points. We are also continuing to look for efficiencies in our operations.
“We remain committed to giving our consumers great tasting and nutritious products without compromising on the quality they know and trust, and continuing to invest back into the more than 3,000 people we employ across the U.K.”
Have you stopped buying Heinz products because of the cost? Have you found a money-saving swap that you'd recommended to others? Let us know in the comments.
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