Instant baked beans on toast go to market

One of the world's biggest food companies will use New Zealand to test its latest invention - pre-packaged baked beans on toast, already frozen and ready to heat in the toaster.

The frozen sandwiches - a wedge of beans and sauce sealed between two slices of bread - are designed to be cooked in a toaster for about 60 seconds.

Trials of the product will be held in New Zealand before it is launched next year in Britain, where 1.5 million cans of baked beans are bought every day.

It has been developed in New Zealand by HJ Heinz and uses special technology to seal two slices of bread together to prevent leakage into the toaster.

In a triumph of food technology, the researchers even worked out the perfect number of baked beans to use to stop the sauce making the toast soggy.

It is expected to be promoted as godsend to blundering cooks who burn the toast and leave half of their beans stuck to a pan, and students are expected to love it too as there are no pans to wash up.

If successful in New Zealand, it is expected to be launched on the British market.

Nigel Dickie, a Heinz spokesman, said "We will be looking at how it performs and it may then be something for the UK market, given that we are the world's biggest bean-eating nation".

Heinz said it has spent £1 million ($3 million) promoting baked beans and retains a 60 per cent share of the UK market.

- NZPA