By Belinda Castles
Researcher | Kairangahau
Ready-to-eat soups in a can or pouch are a convenient winter meal. There’s no chopping or whizzing and only a quick heat-up in the microwave or on the element. But how healthy are they?
There are hundreds of soup options and flavours. We compared the saturated fat, sugar, sodium and dietary fibre stats of 59 chicken-based, pumpkin-based and tomato-based canned and pouch ready-to-eat soups.
Note: Manufacturers have very different ideas of what constitutes a single portion – we saw a range from 200g to 430g! To keep it fair, we calculated nutrition information per 250g (about one cup), rather than comparing the listed “per serving” amounts. If you’re comparing labels at the supermarket, keep this variation in mind.
On this page
- 5 of the healthiest soups we found
- 5 of the unhealthiest soups we found
- Worst soups for sodium
- Worst soups for saturated fats
- Worst soups for sugar
- Best soups for fibre
- Protein claims
- What do health star ratings mean?
- What’s the difference between chilled and unchilled ready-to-eat pouch soups?
- How healthy are dried packet soups?
- Easy ways to make healthy soup at home
- Soups compared
