“Given the rising competition from other table sauces, tomato ketchup manufacturers face the ongoing challenge of how to find ways to maintain consumer interest and to widen their products’ appeal beyond children and teens, reaching out to older, more sophisticated age groups,” says Mintel food and drink analyst Katya Witham.
Over the past year (between April 2016 and March 2017), almost one-fifth of new ketchup launches in Germany were focussed on ‘alternative’ vegetables, offering different flavours to tomato, including Georg Thalhammer’s Mild Pumpkin Ketchup and Herr Edelmann’s Smokey Orange or Organic Mango.
“Their flavour profiles are centred on naturally sweet, flavourful vegetables, such as pumpkin, carrot and beetroot, but also on fruits, including mangos and plums,” writes Witham in an online blog post.
“Besides attention-grabbing flavours, such innovations can help promote more natural and healthier connotations in ketchup, focusing consumer attention on the inherent goodness of fruit and vegetables.”
The trend is also picking up pace in the UK where British company The Foraging Fox manufactures beetroot-based ketchup, available in three flavours: original, smoked and hot.
According to the company’s founder, Frankie Fox, the healthy, clean label ingredient list is a winner.
Fox told our sister site, FoodNavigator-USA: “Beets and apples are naturally sweet so you don’t have to add much sugar… Apple brings out the natural sweetness of the beetroot and takes off the earthy edge to it.
The brand launched in the UK around two years ago and is sold in more than 850 shops, including upmarket retailer Waitrose and online grocery platform Ocado.