Seven soup standouts: we tested 31 store-bought soups, packaged in everything from cans to pouches to microwavable bowls. Is yours a winner for taste?(Product/Service Evaluation)

Easy preparation helps explain why soup is the top ready-to-serve main dish at dinner, according to a report on national eating patterns from the NPD Group, a marketing research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. The fact that soup is typically low in fat, calories, and cost adds to its appeal.

Our trained tasters sampled 31 soups representing the variety of types you'll see in supermarkets: condensed, ready-to-serve, dry, and frozen. The soups came in cans (with and without pop-top lids), jars, pouches, and microwavable bowls and cups.We chose three of the top-selling flavors: vegetable/ minestrone, chicken noodle, and New England clam chowder.

In our past tests, many commercial soups had shortcomings. The same was true this time. Our tasters described the worst soups as "bland," "chalky," or "unremarkable." But the best soups earned high praise. Campbell's Soup at Hand Blended Vegetable Medley, a new pureed product in a single-serving, microwavable cup with a sip-through lid, earned a rating of excellent. At least one taster said she wouldn't hesitate to serve the soup to guests. Six other soups were very good.

Here's what else we found:

* You can't judge soup by brand name alone. Campbell's is a case in point. We tested nine of its soups. Soup at Hand wowed our tasters, and Campbell's Chunky Clam Chowder was very good. But the other Campbell's soups were less impressive.

* You can't judge soup by packaging alone. Canned soups varied in quality, as did dry soups and soups in jars and cups. Frozen soups were a bit more consistent: The three we tried, from Birds Eye and Tabatchnick, were all very good.

* Expect to pay more for convenience. Prices of the tested soups cover a wide range, from 26 cents to $2.39 per serving. Soups in single-serving containers are among the most expensive. The best soups were usually pricey, but not always: Wyler's chicken-noodle mix, rated very good, costs only 37 cents per serving.

* "Organic" on the label doesn't guarantee great-tasting soup inside. For a food to be labeled "organic," federal rules require, among other things, that at least 95 percent of its ingredients were produced without use of synthetic fertilizers, most synthetic pesticides, irradiation, or genetic engineering. We tried organic minestrones from Amy's and Walnut Acres. Both were good, not great.

THE FLAVOR FACTOR

Labels have no shortage of boasts about "delicious" or "homemade" taste you might "remember from your childhood." (Never mind that many Americans grew up eating canned soup.) However, the effects of processing can make it hard to reach that ideal.

The high heat typically used in making canned and jarred foods can soften vegetables and cause them to lose their color, fresh flavor, and nutrient value, while meat can shrink and toughen, explains Clair Hicks, a professor of food science at the University of Kentucky. The dehydration that produces dry soups can also result in tough meat--although, Hicks points out, the other ingredients can be of fairly good quality. Frozen soups can seem fresh, Hicks says, because they require minimal heat treatment before…