Waitrose is revamping its Cook’s Ingredients brand, replacing over a third of the products with more exotic options to reflect changing trends.

The retailer is introducing 43 own-label products that draw on the cuisines of Pan Asia, the Middle East and South America, which it said were in “increasing demand” from its shoppers. These include yuzu juice from Japan, Middle Eastern spice blends zatar and dukkah, Bengali spice seasoning panch phoran, Italian soffritto and a range of dried Mexican chillis.

The retailer is also adding eight new meal kits aimed at consumers who want to combine convenience with elements of scratch cooking. The kits, which will initially be merchandised at the front of store, include katsu curry, yakisoba, Malay penang curry (rsp: £3.99), tagine and rendang (rsp: £1.99).

The revamped brand, which will be rolled out on 17 November featuring new labelling to highlight how the ingredients should be used - as cooking bases, flavour enhancers or finishers, would bring the own label brand “bang up-to-date with the latest food trends” and inject it with some fresh and exciting new ingredients, said Waitrose product developer Clare Bartlett.

“We wanted to create a brand that gives our customers the opportunity to build incredible flavours from scratch and encourages the confidence to fuse these ingredients with Western dishes to create great tasting foods,” she said.

Some of the more ‘mainstream’ products within the existing range, such as noodles, mustards and oils, would be ditched to remove duplication of the retailer’s other own-label products, said Bartlett.

Waitrose is supporting the updated range, which has been sourced from existing and three new suppliers, with in-store recipe cards and articles in the retailer’s magazine.

The ingredients will also be incorporated into the Waitrose Cookery School courses.

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