Millennials hate mayo? Don’t believe the hype

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Old-fashioned souls trapped in millennial bodies may still love the stuff. But the growing number of hip youngsters are more likely to swap mayo for a banana ketchup concoction, the US thinkpiece concluded

Millennials ruin everything, right? First, they killed off letter writing with their obsessive love for all this worldwide web business. Now they’re coming for our sauces. In June, they threatened to ruin Salad Cream as Heinz pondered changing its name to Sandwich Cream (apparently younger types don’t put the condiment on their salads). And this morning saw the nationals jump on a US thinkpiece titled ‘How Millennials Killed Mayonnaise’.

Yes, it seems mayo could be the next much-loved staple to suffer an undignified death at the hands of the upcoming generation. Well, that’s if a single family burger bash is anything to go by (it isn’t). At the aforementioned bash, the writer of this thinkpiece was struck by the fact mayonnaise – “the common foundation of all Mom’s picnic foods” – was missing from the table. In its place, there were “four different kinds of mustard, three ketchups (one made from, I kid you not, bananas), seven sorts of salsa, kimchi, wasabi, relishes of every ilk and hue”. Hair-raising stuff.

Opinion: Credit to Kraft Heinz for whipping up a Salad Cream storm

Her children confirmed her suspicions about the mayonnaise-eschewing crowd. Her “good son” – a practical type who works with computers – likes mayo. Her daughter – the type who did a women’s and gender studies major in college, we’re told – does not.

The love of mayonnaise is not strictly an age thing, she concluded. Old-fashioned souls trapped in millennial bodies may still love the stuff. But the growing number of hip youngsters interested in gender equality and all that nonsense are more likely to swap it for a banana ketchup concoction, apparently. All this led to the coining of the distressing phrase “identity condiments”. Outdated, outperformed and out of step, mayonnaise was essentially consigned to a position as the gammon of all sauces (incidentally, it does go pretty well with gammon).

Except… all this couldn’t be further from the truth. Granted, this article was written in the US, where mayo sales are declining. In the UK, it’s an altogether different story. Last year, The Grocer revealed mayo had overtaken ketchup as the nation’s number one condiment. This year’s data suggests the appetite for it is continuing to grow. Volumes of mayo are up 5.2% [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 17 June 2018], while ketchup is also up 3.2%.

Yes, those categorised by Kantar as “other sauces” – including peri peri, sriracha and those “of every ilk and hue” mentioned by the writer – have enjoyed stronger volume growth of 8.1%. But that’s from a much smaller base. At £52m, their value is dwarfed by the £157m mayo market.