I expect
they were sent to Ethiopia and given to the starving people.
( bovine www.richardtingley.co.uk, visit or I kill you, Tue 14 Oct 2003, 16:12, archived)

actually I imagine
that with the bureacracy associated with the UN, there's probably some huge baked bean mountain somewhere.
( thorpe www.bracestower.co.uk, Tue 14 Oct 2003, 16:13, archived)