I once went out with a man who bought bechamel sauce in a jar. The idea of something that should have lasted a couple of days in the fridge sitting on the supermarket shelf for weeks on end made me feel even queasier than the lasagne that he made with it. Suffice to say, the relationship didn’t last.
I’m not the only one to be turned off by the idea – according to a report from trade journal the Grocer, sales of cooking sauces fell by £30m in 2016 – 3.7% in value – the sixth consecutive year of decline. The magazine attributes this in part to the “health agenda”, which possibly refers to warnings such as the one issued last April by Mars Foods, owner of the Dolmio and Uncle Ben’s brands, that the high salt and sugar levels in some of their products mean they should only be eaten occasionally. “Consumer engagement” with the sector is apparently down, despite the best efforts of those Dolmio puppets and their comedy Italian accents to win our hearts.
The “scratch-cooking trend” also stands accused of denting demand for prepared sauces. However, as sales of ready meals are rather more buoyant, it seems depressingly possible that people are opting to make less effort in the kitchen, rather than more. Why bother to cook your own pasta or rice when a microwave meal is at least 30 seconds quicker? (If you have ever eaten microwaved pasta, you will realise this is a rhetorical question.)
Simon Morgenroth, of market analysts Kantar Worldpanel, explains that “prepared sauces might already feel convenient to a lot of shoppers, but consumers want something even faster, which is why chilled ready meals are on the up. At the same time, shoppers are increasingly conscious of how healthy their food is and are looking for meals that are less processed. As a result, we’re seeing retailers expand their ranges of fresh meat and fish products that come prepared with sauce. Shoppers don’t need to buy a separate product to add flavour to their meals, but still get to feel that they are eating something they have cooked themselves.”
For my part, I hope we’re finally realising how cheap and easy it is to cook something ourselves, rather than just feel like we have. Making tomato sauce from scratch is laughably simple: gently fry a finely chopped onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, with a pinch of herbs if you like, in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until soft and golden, then add two tins of chopped tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down and leave it to bubble away for 15-20 minutes until slightly thickened. Add a dash of wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar if you feel it needs it, season and it’s ready. Sauce from the source, at a total cost of about 88p for four servings – and not a health warning in sight. Tasty.
