Ancient tin of Heinz soup among donations to Cardiff foodbank

A tin of Heinz kidney soup dating back at least 46 years has been donated to a foodbank which was also given a 35-year-old tin of sweetcorn.

The "Ready to Serve" soup still bears its original price sticker and would have set you back 10d, meaning it was sold before decimalisation in 1971.

The Green Giants niblets corn would also seem like a bargain to today's shoppers, costing just 8p according to the package design.

Helen Bull, the partnership and fundraising officer from Cardiff Foodbank where the tins were handed in, said people wanted to be generous by donating items but may not have realised they were out of date.

"Probably what's happened is that it is harvest time and lots of people clean out their cupboards and donate items that the have never used and don't really look at them," she said.

"Unfortunately what sometimes happens is that when an older person dies the family will clean out the cupboards and they want to donate and don't necessarily realise that it was out of date."

Cardiff Foodbank, which handed out 14,189 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis in 2016, tweeted about the find: "It's a record!! Never had a donation to @CardiffFoodbank with 10d on before! @HeinzUK"

Heinz responded by saying: "Wow! That soup was discontinued over 35 years ago. Should be in a museum rather than a food bank! :)"

Ms Bull, who said it costs between £80,000-£100,000 to run the foodbank each year, added the charity had to waste a lot of food which was out of date.

The discovery comes a day after volunteers at Colchester Foodbank in Essex found a bag of macaroni pasta, donated with a use-by date of 1977.

The item was spotted along with a second bag of pasta which went out of date in 1979 and a packet of Sainsbury's instant mashed potato from 1979/80.

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