HP Sauce is a treasured British institution. It’s the essential cooked breakfast ingredient as well as being mighty tasty in cheese sandwiches. It may be owned by Heinz these days, but the recipe is unchanged.
Or is it? Today, I saw a story from last year that suggests it has fiddled with detrimentally: HP Sauce recipe secretly changed after 116 years. Fortunately, I have a contact within Heinz that was able to confirm that this is of course the Torygraph trying to make a story out of nothing…
When we reduced the salt in HP Sauce in November 2010 there was no outcry. That is until the media-led hullabaloo in September (2011) which left many thinking we had just made a fundamental change to the HP recipe that somehow altered its familiar taste. But this is simply not so.
We did rigorous consumer testing before making a tiny salt adjustment last year, and this proved that there was no significant change to the great taste of HP, it was just a little healthier. HP’s essential ingredients of Tomatoes, Malt and Spirit Vinegars, Molasses, Spices and Tamarind, which create its traditional taste, have not changed. Salt is a minute ingredient.
In the 10 months since the change consumers have been buying just as many bottles as ever – more than 500,000 bottles a week and around 22 million bottles since the adjustment. HP Sauce tastes just as great as it always has.
Phew! HP continues to be a sauce of manliness! Applaud that facial hair!