Jam stuck in the past as healthier eating hits sales
Thursday, 1 June 2006
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Jam-makers are in a sticky spot. One of the nation's traditional pleasures is struggling in the health-conscious 21st century and the old favourites - strawberry and raspberry - are falling out of fashion.
Sales of jam in the UK fell in real terms between 2000 and 2004, recording a rise in value of just 2 per cent to £89m over the five years, a fifth of the rate of inflation.
Sales of sugary marmalade have fallen 6 per cent to £58m while honey, seen as a pure, natural product, has been booming, according to figures from Mintel, the market research group.
Jam-makers say they have been affected by concerns about sugar content, the decline of cooked breakfasts and the demise of afternoon tea.
They have become so worried by the slump that they fear fruit preserves will become completely unfashionable. Research suggests that jam and marmalade are usually bought by older people.
Although Wilkin & Sons, the Queen's jam-maker, has increased its share of a shrinking market, it is diversifying to safeguard its future with plans to make ketchup and brown sauce.
"It has been a particularly poor time for the jam industry," Ian Thurgood, the joint managing director, said. "There's no doubt there has been a decline in sales.
"There is a lack of occasions when jam is consumed. It used to be afternoon tea thing. I am almost 50 years old and when I was a child we used to come home and have afternoon tea with bread and jam. Now, children come home and have crisps."
Mr Thurgood added: "Cooked breakfasts, with toast and marmalade, have almost disappeared, apart from the weekends.
"It's pretty demoralising stuff. I'm not sure what one can do to reverse that, if it can be reversed."
The sales figures suggest health is the key reason for jam's problems. As Britons have tried to improve their diet, makers of cakes, biscuits and chocolates have lost millions of pounds of sales while purchases of low-fat options, yoghurts and smoothies have soared.
Since sugar accounts for half of traditional jam, it is easy to leave it out of the shopping basket during an obesity "epidemic".
Confirming the trend, sales of healthier no-sugar fruit spreads (not officially jam because of the absence of sugar) have been rising quickly , up by a half between 2000 and 2004 to £6m, according to Mintel.
Many in the jam world seem reluctant to talk about their problems, perhaps fearing that doing so will worsen them.
Robertson's, the famous brand which retired its Golly character in 2001 because it was "unfamiliar" to modern children, would only say it has responded to requests for "healthier foods" by increasing its fruit content by 28 per cent over the past 12 months.
Similarly, F Duerr and Sons has launched a range of low-carb fruit spreads containing between 50 and 65 per cent fruit with the sweetener sucralose instead of sugar, aimed at followers of the Atkins diet.
As standard high-sugar jam declines, customers are seeking out more adventurous flavours, Mintel said. New ones include cranberry with blueberry, which is claimed to reduce the chances of bowel cancer.
Five foods out of fashion
Salad Cream
In the culinary dark days of the 1970s, smearing salad cream on lettuce had an air of sophistication about it. By the 1990s, salad dressing and olive oil had outdone the fatty cream. Sales slumped so low that, in 1999, Heinz announced it was ditching salad cream. It relented, but salad cream is a shadow of its former self
Lard
Cultural references to lard abound - the DJs Mark and Lard, the insult "lard-ass" and "lardy", the tub of lard that posed as a contestant when Roy Hattersley failed to turn up to Have I Got News For You? Yet we are using lard less and less to bake with, probably because pig's fat is high in saturated fat and cholesterol
Jellied Eels
Once a delicacy in the East End of London, eels were boiled for an hour and a half and the juices created formed the jelly. Members of the EastEnders cast do not say: "Alfie, I picked up your jellied eels."
Liquorice
No Liquorice Council or Liquorice Makers Association lists sales but there seems to be less about. It has not been helped by the collapse of a woman who ate too many Pontefract cakes (liquorice coins), or a study that found itcan reduce male fertility
Tripe
When were you last offered tripe and onions? Edible offal made from the stomach of cows, sheep or pigs was once a prized part of the meal-time repertoire.
