Goulash soup is a popular canned dish. But a test by ZDF shows that there are differences in taste and quality depending on the product.
Munich – Canned meals are particularly practical when things have to go quickly. Simply heat it in a pot or in the microwave, season to taste and the wholesome meal is ready. But there are big differences in quality and taste when it comes to canned dishes, as a test by
ZDF
shows. Goulash soup from various manufacturers from supermarkets and discounters was examined.
Six goulash soups were examined in the ZDF test
The consumer magazine Wiso regularly tests food and items in the “Expensive or Cheap” section. For this purpose, experts are consulted and consumers are surveyed. In a Radler test, for example, a product failed mercilessly. For the goulash soup test,
ZDF
examined products from the Ökoland, Sonnen Bassermann and Erasco brands as well as the own brands from Aldi, Edeka and Lidl. There is already a clear difference in price: the products from Aldi, Edeka and Lidl are the cheapest at 45 cents - the soup from Ökoland, on the other hand, costs 99 cents. But how does it taste?
These canned goulash soups were tested:
Organic goulash soup from Ökoland for 0.99 euros
Sonnen Bassermann goulash soup for 0.75 euros
Hungarian goulash soup from Erasco for 0.48 euros
Goulash soup from Aldi's own brand Genusszeit for 0.45 euros
Goulash soup Hungarian style from Edeka's own brand Gut & Günstig for 0.45 euros
Goulash soup from Lidl's own brand Kania for 0.45 euros
As the cooking experts on the recipe portal
koch-mit.de
explain, diced meat, peppers, onions and broth should not be missing in a proper goulash soup. But what is most important is a lot of time and patience. The soup has to simmer for a long time until it develops its typically strong, spicy aroma. The experts assess whether this can also be tasted in the ready meals.
ZDF tests: The canned goulash soups lack meat and vegetables
As nutrition expert Caroline Brunnbauer from the Rhineland-Palatinate Consumer Center explains, what you notice when you look at the list of ingredients is that there is only a little meat and vegetables in everything, but there are a lot of flavor enhancers, which creates the spicy taste. A test in the laboratory shows that the cheap products contain the most meat, especially the goulash soup from Lidl, followed by Aldi and Edeka. Erasco's product contains the least amount of meat. Although Lidl can score points here, things look different in the blind tasting.
ZDF
asked students from the University of Mainz for their assessment. The clear favorite: the cheap goulash soup from Aldi. “The meat tasted best here. It was very tender,” said one student after the taste test. The expensive product from Ökoland also made it to first place – “the soup simply had the best ratio of meat to liquid,” explains one of the tasters. Lidl, on the other hand, received a poor rating and ended up in last place.
A cheap discount product also scored points
in a meat sausage test by
ZDF .
Here is an overview of the results of the taste test:
1st place |
Aldi and Ökoland |
|---|---|
2nd place |
Sonnen Bassermann and Erasco |
3rd place |
Edeka |
4th Place |
Lidl |
The consumer magazine's conclusion: canned goulash soup has a very long shelf life and is quick to prepare, but it contains little meat and often contains flavor enhancers. Nevertheless, according to
ZDF
, goulash is one of the most popular ready-made soups. A total of 90,000 tons of soup are produced in Germany every year.
(tt)