The Aldi Canned Bean Mishap That Has The Internet In Tears

While there are plenty of Aldi foods you need to try before you die, including the black bean burgers, the shrimp and crab ravioli, and the marble pound cake, some of these products seem to have a mind of their own. In other words, quite a few Aldi shoppers have purchased food products, only to discover the package is empty.

Back in 2013, one Reddit user posted that they had found an "empty sealed milk jug" at Aldi. Several Redditors wondered how the empty jug had gone unnoticed by employees, but others cracked jokes about the situation. One wrote, "So that's what evaporated milk is!" Another commented, "It's not empty, it's just that skim milk has gotten incredibly light as of recently." Either way, you might want to think twice about drinking skim milk.

This past June, the internet got a kick out of another product-less package found at Aldi. According to the Daily Mail, an Australian shopper picked up a container of pre-sliced cheese, only to discover it was empty. Some people joked it was the new "diet food," while others said that the cheese had been "sliced so thin it's transparent." Just this week, another Aldi shopper was in hysterics after she purchased a can of black beans. Little did she know, the can was essentially bean-less. 

Yet another Aldi shopper joined the Empty Packages Club after she returned home with her can of Simply Nature organic black beans. According to Yahoo News, when the shopper opened the can, it contained only two beans. After she posted about it on an Aldi-centric Facebook group, others joked that the just-about-empty can was the result of inflation.

However, this Aldi fail isn't the end of the world. The rest of the can was filled with a clear liquid — presumably the usual bean goop, also known as aquafaba (via Treehugger). Per Bon Appetit, aquafaba is a mix of water, salt, and bean starch, and it's great for thickening broths. In fact, you can even use aquafaba as an egg substitute or in meringue, mayo, and vegan mozzarella. Just keep in mind that you should get a can of low-sodium and preferably organic beans if you plan to use the aquafaba in other recipes, as it is a preservative and therefore tends to be very salty.

Although it's easy to see the bean-less can as a fail on Aldi's part, the contents are still very useful if you know how to cook with aquafaba or are willing to learn. Unfortunately, this particular shopper will need to go back to the store for a second can — hopefully one with beans this time.