British baked beans under threat as Andy Burnham drops tariffs on over 100 food products

But British food manufacturers have warned cheap exports could undermine the valuable bean-processing industry.

The Princes Group, which makes Branston baked beans, is owned by Italian food conglomerate Newlat and is one of the UK’s biggest food manufacturers with around 2,000 employees.

Heinz baked beans, meanwhile, are produced in Wigan, Greater Manchester. It employs up to 850 people and produces 1.5 million tins a day.

Karen Betts, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), said the Budget had done “nothing to ease the pressures food and drink manufacturers are under”.

She said: “One of the Chancellor’s flagship announcements, removing tariffs from some food and drink products, will have no meaningful impact on consumer prices.

“But it will undermine British factories and their workers, grappling with much higher costs, producing the same products.”

The warning follows Defence Secretary Wes Streeting’s suggestion that Britons should stockpile tinned food and bottled water to prepare for war in 1,000 days.

Mr Burnham suggested stockpiling baked beans, soup and Twiglets.

A spokesman for the Princes Group said: “Based on our understanding of the proposals so far, removing tariffs on imported finished baked beans is unlikely to have a meaningful impact on prices, particularly as there are currently no tariffs on the imported haricot beans used by UK manufacturers and no tariffs on EU imports.

“We believe measures that help address the higher costs of manufacturing food in the UK, particularly energy costs, would have a greater impact for both consumers and British businesses.”

The FDF said it was also concerned about the lifting of tariffs on boiled sweets, toffees and caramels, and pressed sweets like Love Hearts and Parma Violets.

Ms Betts added: “Food and drink manufacturing should be central to the Government’s growth and reindustrialisation agenda.

“But time and again, we are treated as an afterthought.

“The Treasury, in particular, has persistently failed to recognise the importance of food and drink manufacturing to jobs and prosperity across the length and breadth of the UK”

The membership organisation named confectionery companies Nestle, Haribo, and Cadbury, along with Tiptree jam, as brands which could have been affected.

Last year, the UK and US placed chocolate tariffs of up to 10 per cent on each other.

The US has since increased its tariff to 20 per cent, while the UK has dropped it for most products.

The Government says the tariff suspensions, taken together with others announced this year, will reduce consumer costs by up to £595million a year, and save households up to £21 on their annual food shop.