Tinned beans, dry/drained weight or total weight?

Tartuslipper

Where I live it's standard for a tin of beans (e.g. kidney beans) to have a "total weight" of 400g and a "dry weight" or "drained weight" of 240 or 250g, with nutritional information written "per 100g" (e.g. 53 kcal per 100g). Does this nutritional information refer to 100g of drained beans or to 100g of beans and water?

I usually pour away the water and add all the beans to my dish. On My Fitness Pal I then write, for example, 250g at 53 kcal/100g, i.e. 2.5 times 53, so 133 kcal for the whole tin of beans. Is this the right way to do it?

livingleanlivingclean

Does the label also say how many grams per serve, and how many serves per can?

Tartuslipper

No, not as far as I can see.

lynn_glenmont

If the label on the tin says that the beans are only 53 kcal per 100 g, that is the undrained weight. Drained beans are more in the neighborhood of 100 kcal per 100 g (a bit more or less, depending on the variety of beans. Kidney beans, for example, are 84 kcal per 100 g drained.

Tartuslipper

The plot thickens... I've just noticed that one brand of kidney beans shows 53 kcal per 100g, while another shows 93 kcal per 100g. If that US nutrient database says kidney beans should be 84 kcal per 100g, then I guess that means the tin with "93 kcal" is referring to the drained weight while the one with "53 kcal" is referring to the beans and water together...

Assuming all the calories are in the beans, rather than the water, this means that the ones marked as "53 kcal" actually have 88 kcal per 100g of drained beans, which sounds about right!