Focus On Cooking Sauces & Meal Kits: 22 February

By Adam Gale (adampwgale1@gmail.com)

Publishing: 22 February 2025

Advertising deadline: 7 February 2025

Submissions deadline: 27 January 2025

Print, digital and sponsorship opportunities

Cooking sauces are having their time in the sun. Sales have grown by 5.4% on volumes up 0.5% as Brits have cut back on eating out and sought more adventurous quick meals to cook at home [NIQ]. Still, that growth might raise eyebrows, given growing demand for healthier foods and the category’s associations with ultra-processed food (UPF). So what are cooking sauce brands doing to reassure people concerned by issues like UPFs, sugar and salt content? Are cooking sauces any better for people now than they were in the past? And what makes a sauce healthy or unhealthy anyway?

Retail share: This feature will explore how different retailers are managing the category in terms of ranging, promotions and balancing brands and own label product assortments. How are brands working with retailers to create excitement in the fixture? Which retailers are in strongest growth and why?

Brands versus own label: NIQ’s analysis shows that own-label cooking sauces and meal kits are out-performing brands. This feature will explore how retailers have developed their own label ranges in the past year and how they’re likely to evolve in coming months. How do brands and own label compare in terms of price, quality, etc?

Innovation: This feature will also pay close attention to the latest trends in the cooking sauces and meal kits market and how this is playing out in terms of product innovation. We will profile four new products or ranges, ideally ones that have not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.