The Worst Canned Corn Brand Comes From A Popular Grocery Chain

Canned sweetcorn is a pantry staple that's perfect for tumbling into salads, baking into a casserole, or simply serving alongside a kiddie-sized portion of chicken nuggets for a quick veggie punch. Indeed, its naturally sweet flavor and sunshine-yellow color make it an instant hit with fussy eaters who are ordinarily wary of other duller-looking vegetables. Plus, sweetcorn is packed with dietary fiber, folate, and Vitamin C, and it counts as one of your five a day too! 

While you might not think there's much to distinguish one brand of canned corn from another, there are slight differences in taste, texture, and color that you should consider when next stocking your larder with this family favorite. Somewhat shockingly, in our eyes, the worst canned corn brand comes from a popular grocery chain — Stop & Shop. The loser in Tasting Table's list of 10 canned corn brands, ranked from worst to best, Stop & Shop's was mealy and flavorless. 

Instead of plump little nuggets, the kernels were broken or split into shards. Moreover, the color was extremely lacking. Instead of the bright yellow we expected, the kernels were much paler, despite the label describing the product as "golden corn." Packed in brine, it also tasted super salty as we sampled it straight from the can without draining it first. Granted, this brand of canned sweetcorn is more affordable than the other options we tried, but it simply didn't deliver on flavor or texture. If anything, we'd advise purchasing a more premium brand that you can at least trust will have a fuller flavor and plumper shape.

Much like other canned vegetables that you should consider stocking in your pantry, such as peas, green beans, and beets, canned corn is often packed in a salty brine to lend it a little more flavor. Some consumers needlessly accept the high levels of sodium in certain tinned products, believing the myth that the salt in canned foods is used as a preservative. In fact, it's the canning process itself, rather than the salt, that destroys bacteria via sterilization and boosts the lifespan of corn and other vegetables. If preferred, you can easily find many varieties of salt-free canned corn.

One such example is the winner in our ranking; Del Monte whole kernel corn. This higher priced option was crisp with a snappy texture and each kernel was plump and uniform in appearance when it came to size and color. There was also more corn and less water in the can, which is good to know considering its price (many of the other brands we tried were packed in a lot more water). As it doesn't contain any extra salt or preservatives, the flavor of the corn truly shined through. The ingredients list cites only corn and water so if you're watching your sodium intake, even better.