Hello there.
I was planning on making chili tonight with extra lean ground beef, veges and beans. But when reading the label on the can of chili beans sugar is listed in the ingredients. The list is as follows: Water, pinto beans, kidney beans, tomato paste, salt, spices, liquid sugar, red & green peppers, garlic & onion powder & oil. Am I allowed to eat them?? The nutrional information does not list sugar grams just energy, protein, fat, carbs & dietary fibre.

Read the carbohydrate section. It should list the amount of carbohydrate and how much of this is from sugar. Beans and vegetables are high in carbohydrate (good carbs) but the amount of carbo from sugar will let you know how much has been added.

I find a lot of processed stuff is really high in sugar and salt. I buy canned kidney beans and plain canned tomatoes without any seasoning then add my own herbs and chilli. It's much cheaper too!

Or....radical thought .... buy the dried beans and cook them yourself! Then you know exactly what's there. Sugar is added as a preservative in many canned beans and tomato products.

Hi Ruth,
you know, I always think that's a great idea, then my beans-from-scratch taste like plain cardboard and are a weird consistency. I thought maybe it was ok to use canned beans....I make chili with Coleman's organic ground beef (no mad cow allowed in my house) canned tomatoes and canned kidney beans.
If you have a good method to make your own beans from dried, let me know!! I'm probably doing it wrong!

The trick is to not undercook them. They are really time consuming to make from scratch. You need to soak them overnight, get rid of that water and let them boil for about two hours. I don't know how well they freeze but if you are going to that effort you probably need to cook a ton of them. I usually buy them canned but not with all the sauces. I will check the label next time to see if they have sugar, salt etc added to them.