Once upon a time, whole chickens and bread came in a can, and no one batted an eye. It sounds a bit science fiction now, to be honest. Considering how much tastes have changed over the course of years, so did the grocery aisles.
Plenty of once-popular canned foods simply vanished, leaving behind them an undeniable trace of nostalgia. Maybe a couple of dusty cans in someone’s basement. Today, we decided to pay them “hommage,” so we made a list with all the canned food items we deeply miss and root for their comeback. Here’s our selection and the reason why they’ve been discontinued.
Campbell’s pepper pot soup
Campbell’s Pepper Pot Soup was a bit spicy, a little funky, and a whole lot of fulfilling. It had been around for a lot of time, since 1899, making its way from Philadelphia kitchens into cans. It had everything: potatoes, onions, carrots, jalapenos, red pepper flakes, and beef tripe.
The last ingredient either made people quite nostalgic or made them gag. After over a century on the shelves, Campbell’s quietly axed back in 2010, due to the fact that palates became increasingly sophisticated and nobody wanted to open a can of beef tripe anymore. But like any other love-it-or-hate-it food, its cult following still wishes for its peppery return. If you’re one of these people, here’s a great alternative.
Franco-American macaroni and cheese
Only two years after Kraft Foods debuted its now super famous boxed macaroni and cheese, hungry shoppers were freshly introduced to Franco-American Macaroni and Cheese, which was a can full of long, spaghetti-like noodles drenched in an orangey, goopy cheese mess.
There were no powder packets, no boiling. You only had to crack open a can, heat it, and call it a dinner. It first appeared in 1939, and it was marketed as the easy way to get homemade-style mac and cheese without any effort. For a little while, people were definitely on board for it.
Pepsi blue
So technically it is not a canned food, but it was once upon a time a canned beverage, and its discontinuation still touches a soft spot. Pepsi Blue was PepsiCo’s contender back in the Cola Wars of the 90’s, launching in 2002, only a day before Coca-Cola released Vanilla Coke.
At the time, Pepsi Blue was a neon-blue, berry-flavored soda that looked a bit like taken out of a radioactive plant, and it was mainly marketed to teenagers. It got a huge marketing push – Britney Spears ads, movie placements, and X Games sponsorships. However, the sickly sweet taste and the use of Blue 1 dye (banned in some countries) didn’t favor it.
Chef Boyardee pac-man pasta
Back in the ’80s, Pac-Man was everywhere—arcades, cereal boxes, even your own underwear was Pac-man themed. Of course, Chef Boyardee decided to jump on the bandwagon and rapidly turned it into pasta.
Each of them had mushy pasta like Pac-Men, ghosts, and dots drowned in a questionably thick golden chicken sauce. It goes without saying that it had zero nutritional value, but it definitely tasted amazing, and on top of everything else, it was shaped like Pac-Man!
Everything was great in the world, really. However, the Pac-Man fever eventually faded, and so did the demand for this themed pasta. By the beginning of the ’90s, it fully vanished.
Pumpkin spice spam
You know very well that we all have a pumpkin spice problem. Well, even SPAM marketed this obsession at some point, selling out Pumpkin Spice Spam over the course of seven hours. Well yes, people were more than willing to spend their hard-earned money on cinnamon-flavored canned meat.
Back in 2019, Hormel Foods also dropped a limited edition Pumpkin Spice SPAM, since there’s really no food that the pumpkin spice can’t corrupt.
Hunt’s snack pack pudding (in a can)
Plastic pudding cups came along as extremely smart, and a much safer alternative to the metal cans that once held Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding. Since nothing really makes a snack more exciting than the possibility of slicing your tongue open, really.
However, in the 80s, someone ultimately realized that metal plus pudding wasn’t exactly the ideal combo. Too many kids and adults alike were scraping out every single bit and ending up with a battle wound. By 1984, the aluminum cans were fully out, and pudding was sold in less dangerous plastic cups.
Trader Joe’s Bay blend coffee
Trader Joe’s Bay Blend Coffee had quite the fanbase, thanks to its mix of Colombian Excelso and Mexican High Grown beans roasted dark enough to get that oily sheen coffee lovers either swear by or side-eye.
It was quite bold, strong, and totally not for the crowd that would rather have a light roast. But then, something happened. In 2022, Trader Joe’s quietly decided to pull it from the shelves, blaming low sales. A company representative threw the usual explanation: that if something doesn’t sell, it’s out to make room for the next big time. Boo-hoo.
Pringles top ramen chicken-flavored chips
Well, at a certain point in 2018, a starving genius must have gazed over a pack of Top Ramen, then a can of Pringles, and he/she put two and two together and said “Well they would work together.” Ever since, the unholiest, most beautiful fusion of processed food was made: Top Ramen Chicken-Flavored Chips.
It was extremely salty, MSG-laden, and it also tasted like someone crushed up a pack of ramen seasoning and sprinkled it right onto your taste buds. However, the snack gods are cruel, and this otherworldly creation chips vanished quite rapidly. Now, you might be able to find them on eBay for nothing less than $800.
Campbell’s ravioliOs
A canned pasta that took the classic ravioli shape with its rounded version, because well why the hell not? Campbell’s RavioliOs were filled with either cheese or beef, floating in a thick, tomato-adjacent sauce, and for kids in the ’80s and ’90s, this was the ultimate after-school fuel. However, they never quite reached SpaghettiOs-level fame, and at a certain point in the 2000s, Campbell’s quietly discontinued them.
Chef Boyardee tic-tac-toe’s
Another pasta from Chef Boyardee, Tic-Tac-Toe’s, was made out of Xs and Os-shaped pasta swimming in a water of ketchup. Yummy, I suppose? But all in all, it was both a dinner and an activity in one can, and it even worked for a while. But if you’d ask me, it being discontinued was bound to happen eventually.
Campbell’s scotch broth soup
For many years, Campbell’s Scotch Broth Soup was nothing but a cold-weather staple. It was thick, rich, and made of barley, lamb, carrots, and of course, onions. It also had that slow-simmered, homemade taste without actually requiring you to stand over a stove for hours in a row. In 2023, without a specific reason, Campbell discontinued this beloved food in cold blood.
Dinty Moore meatball stew
Dinty Moore is the ultimate canned stew. However, in 2016, they made a couple of enemies when they silently gave the boot to one of their most beloved flavors: Meatball Stew. The product had been on shelves since 1935, as another variant of the same, classic beef stew, but this time with a big, soft meatball instead of cubbed beef. It was filling and just what you would wish for on a cold day.
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