Baked beans could be grown in Britain for first time after scientists' discovery
Farmers and scientists are optimistic Britain can start growing our own baked beans.
Until now, it has been impossible for farmers to grow the haricot variety used for baked beans in the UK because of our climate.
But scientists have developed a seed they hope will allow the plants to thrive after a 12-year project.
“It’s crazy shipping a bean halfway around the world,” Prof Tim Lang said.
Thousands of tonnes of dried haricot beans are imported to the UK each week by the major brands, coming from the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China.
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“It’s the first commercial scale planting of a variety of haricot beans that could end up in a can on everybody’s supper table,” said Andrew Ward, the farmer growing the beans in Lincolnshire.
The phaseolus vulgaris ben plant (Getty Images/iStockphoto)“At the moment we don’t have any beans that are grown here that are suitable for baked beans, our climate isn’t right for producing this type of bean.”
The seeds sown mark the latest phase of the research by the University of Warwick who developed seeds which can be sown in early May and harvested as a dry grain before mid-September, matching the UK’s warmer months.
Prof Eric Holub, from the university’s Life Sciences department, said: “The work that I have been involved with started in 2011, but actually it was inherited material that had been used here on the university farm in the 1970s and 80s.
“It was put into storage, and it was 2011 that I realised that there was some valuable material and I started reviving it.”
A smaller scale trial in 2022 failed due to the summer heatwave, with hopes this current crop being grown in Leadenham near Lincoln will be ready to harvest in late August.
“We’ve seen empty supermarket shelves over the last few months”, said Mr Ward.
“That’s down to the problem that we don’t grow enough of our food, ourselves, here.”
Some health food brands have attempted to market British-grown fava beans as ‘baked beans’, but they have lacked mass appeal due to the difference in taste to haricots.
Prof Lang from City, University of London, said it was “very important” the project succeeded.
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“It has been a desperate desire of the British food industry and baked bean manufacturers to have a British baked bean for decades,” he said.
“When I started in food policy 40 years ago, people were wanting this.
“It’s crazy shipping a little bean halfway round the world just to put it in a tin can with some tomato sauce.”
Today in the UK we get through more than two million cans of baked beans every day...more than the rest of the world.
The Heinz factory in Wigan - the largest baked bean factory in the world - makes more than three million cans of beans every 24 hours.
They were first introduced in 1901 by an American man, Henry Heinz, owner of the Heinz food company.
In 1905, Mr Heinz started to advertise his baked beans as the perfect pre-cooked meal at the end of a long day in a factory. They were instantly popular.
Baked beans get their name because the raw haricot beans are baked in tomato sauce while inside the can.
Originally the recipe included small pieces of pork, however during World War 2, they became vegetarian because of meat rationing.
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