Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, 10.75 oz — DUMP
Munch or Dump rates Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, 10.75 oz by Campbell's DUMP — score 20/90.
Grandma's chicken soup does not need 20-plus ingredients, MSG, two kinds of modified starch, added cane sugar, and nearly 900 mg of sodium per serving. The comfort here is engineered — stock and noodles propped up by an industrial flavor kit. Sick-day nostalgia in a salt-lick can.
Why this verdict
- Ingredient list runs past 20 items — hard DUMP territory for what should be a five-ingredient soup
- Flavor enhancer stack: MSG + yeast extract + generic 'flavoring'
- Cornstarch AND modified food starch thicken a broth that real chicken soup thickens itself
- Roughly 890 mg sodium per half-cup serving — over a third of the daily limit before you finish the bowl
- Added cane sugar and sodium phosphate in a savory soup — formulation tells, not kitchen ingredients
Ingredients (11)
- chicken stock (safe) — Water and dried chicken stock — the real base
- Enriched Egg Noodles (moderate) — Refined-flour noodles with vitamins added back. Fine, just not whole grain.
- chicken meat (safe) — No-antibiotics-ever chicken, per Campbell's sourcing policy.
- Salt (moderate) — ~260mg sodium per packet — sweet AND salty is the palatability play.
- MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (caution) — First layer of the umami stack — flavor engineering, not seasoning.
- modified food starch (caution) — Industrially altered starch for sauce texture
- Cane Sugar (caution) — Added sugar in the Kettle Corn bags — modest, but it's there.
- YEAST EXTRACT (caution) — Free glutamate — the same umami hit as MSG with a cleaner-sounding name.
- Soy Protein Isolate (moderate) — Industrial protein fraction inside the 'rice crisps'
- Sodium Phosphate (caution) — Binds water and plumps texture; high phosphate intake is linked to cardiovascular and kidney strain.
- beta carotene color (safe) — Natural colorant — one honest claim on the can.
Healthier alternatives