It was a stroke from my youth. A blast from my past. The Heinz Tomato Soup can. But even icons like the holy can have to be messed with.
I was in Publix this morning doing the big shop. I thought I'd pass by the Brit section and maybe get a Flake. Or some soup. But the marketing nerds at Heinz have changed the label! Now I have this new can in my pantry. Will it even taste the same? I'm scared to find out.
Jeff & Amy Stephens
Course it will taste the same, it's British!The soup's in a time warp but the can labels obviously aren't.
blott
We flew home via Pittsburg one time. My son is the very proud owner of a Heinz Tomato Ketchup Tee shirt bought in the airport shop and the envy of all his mates - and dad!
Jo
Oh, bad news... I just found this!
Heinz gives soups a healthier recipe
Felicity Lawrence, consumer affairs correspondent
Thursday August 26, 2004
The Guardian
The food giant Heinz has changed the contents of all its tinned soups, increasing the "quantity of ingredients" while reducing fat, salt and sugar.
The move is a further sign that the food industry is making efforts to keep ahead of legislation to improve the nation's diet and reduce obesity. The government's white paper on public health, due in October, is expected to make recommendations on food and diet-related diseases.
The new Heinz tomato soup for example now contains 84% tomato compared with 74% in the old version. The company has also reduced salt levels by 20% to 1g per serving. Sugar has been reduced slightly from 5.2g per 100g to 4.9. The quantity of vegetable oil added has also been reduced.
The reformulation of the soups has been accompanied by price rises of up to 20% to account for the cost of using more "real" ingredients. A tin of tomato soup costing 49p to 56p in supermarkets will now sell at 59p.
"We are working towards the Food Standards Agency guidelines on salt, which are pretty tough, and to achieving them over three years," marketing manager Dan Ince said.
He added that the company was also working towards gradually reducing any "technological ingredients" in its soups. A new range of "special soups" has also been developed using "only ingredients that could be found in the modern domestic kitchen", and these will sell for 79p for 400g. Heinz tomato soup still contains modified cornflour, dried skimmed milk and whey protein.
Heinz has taken the unusual step of replacing all its old stock in major supermarkets at once rather than introducing the new range gradually. It will spend £10m on advertising in the autumn and has an additional budget of £2.5m to cover the cost of credit for old stock and logistics to replace it.
Replacing all its stock in every major supermarket branch in the country in one night will require 20,000 staff and 1,000 lorries.
New deals on extra shelf space at the expense of competitors will justify the outlay. On average Heinz has negotiated a 25-30% rise in its share of space for soup in the main stores.
The Heinz campaign is an example of the growing trend among big supermarkets to appoint a single dominant manufacturer to the role of "category manager".
A category manager takes charge of a category of product in the supermarket, such as soup or bread, and works closely with retailers on research and marketing of that category for all other suppliers.
In return they have access to confidential data from supermarkets' reward cards on cus tomers' spending habits. The competition commission report on supermarkets in 2000 said that this sort of close cooperation might reduce competition.
Smaller manufacturers have expressed concern that it gives category managers an unfair advantage.
"We have been able to highlight other non-performers for the supermarkets," Mr Ince said, and some brands have been discontinued.
Heinz has a 60% share of the total canned soup market. The Consumers' Association welcomed Heinz's move. "It's good that they've taken these steps. We'd like to see further reduction and the reductions applied across their whole range of products," it said.
How the recipe changed
Old Heinz tomato soup ingredients
Tomatoes (74%), water, vegetable oil, sugar, modified cornflour, salt, dried skimmed milk, whey protein, cream, spice extracts, herb extract, citric acid
Contains per 100g
Sugar 5.2g
Fat 3.6g
Sodium 0.4g
New Heinz tomato soup ingredients
Tomatoes (84%), water, vegetable oil, sugar, modified cornflour, salt, dried skimmed milk, whey protein, cream, citric acid, spice extracts, herb extract
Contains per 100g
Sugar 4.9g
Fat 3.0g
Sodium 0.2g
blott
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by luckylady
Sarah,
Heinz wants uso live longer so we will buy more soup!!!!
Barbara
[/quote]
Ahh, marketing ploy of course but it might back fire because if I don't like the new taste I won't buy it again no matter how long I live.[msnwink][msnsmile2]
Sarah
Lets hope it is not like some other "New and Improved recipes"....changed and as a result - yuk[:O]
Have to see if Tesco has some of this "new" soup!
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by carolmc
Lets hope it is not like some other "New and Improved recipes"....changed and as a result - yuk[:O]
Have to see if Tesco has some of this "new" soup!
[/quote]
Report back and tell us if the new recipe has changed the taste much then Carol, you can be the guineapig.[msnwink][msnsmile2]
Sarah
Unless you read the labels you wont know if you're getting the new one though unless you know the date on which they intend to changeover.
Bit like soap powders, never ceases to amuse me how they spend millions advertising how wonderful it is will cope with every stain imaginable etc, then 6 months down the line they introduce yet another new version, which gets rids of all the stains that 6 months ago they told us the old one could cope with.
Murder trying to keep up with sensitive skin as they dont always tell you about the changes.
Babblin Boo
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