Branston (food)

Branston is a well known United Kingdom brand of savoury foods. They are most well known for their original Branston Pickle, a jarred pickled relish first made in 1922 in the Branston suburb of Burton upon Trent by Crosse & Blackwell.

In 2004 the brand was bought by Premier Foods and production was moved to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Since its introduction, it has gone on to be the brand leader, selling over 28 million jars a year in the UK. [ [http://www.premierfoods.co.uk/our-brands/branston_home.cfm Premier Food web site] (accessed 2007-02-21)]

The original pickle

Branston Pickle is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede (rutabaga),carrots, onions, cauliflower and gherkins pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and dates with spices such as mustard, coriander, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cayenne pepper.

Branston Pickle is sweet and spicy with a chutney-like consistency, containing small chunks of vegetables in a thick brown sticky sauce. It is commonly served as part of a ploughman's lunch, a once common menu item in British pubs. It is also frequently combined with cheddar cheese in sandwiches, and most sandwich shops in the UK offer "cheese and pickle" as an option. It is available in the standard 'chunky' version, though there is also a 'sandwich' variety, where the vegetable chunks are smaller and easier to spread. In recent times, Premier Foods have also brought out a 'squeezy' variety in a plastic bottle. There was also a spicy type made for a short time, but this did not prove as popular and is now hard to find. In December 2007 Premier announced it was adopting the Timestrip smart label [cite web |url= http://www.timestriponline.com|title= Timestrip |accessdate=2007-12-11] technology on jars being sold through Tesco in the UK. The Timestrip would help communicate the Period After Opening date (6 weeks) to consumers.

Generic varieties

As with any product that becomes popular, other manufacturers have developed their own brand of a Branston type pickle. Many supermarkets now have generic own brand versions. In order to prevent problems with the registered trade name, the term "sweet pickle" has been adopted by most manufacturers.

The Pickle Crisis of 2004

At 3am on 27 October 2004 a massive fire almost destroyed the entire Bury St Edmunds factory and cut the stocks of Branston Pickle in half [cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/3957303.stm |title= Blaze forces pickle plant closure|publisher=BBC News |date=2004-10-27 |accessdate=2007-01-30 ] , thus reducing the supply of the product and in some instances increasing the price. The factory is now back in production and has recently launched Branston Tomato Ketchup and Brown Sauce along with a range of relishes and Baked Beans.

Brand extension

At one stage Walkers produced a variety of crisps called "Cheese and Branston Pickle" [ [http://www.taquitos.net/snacks.php?snack_code=1560 Cheese and Branston flavour Walkers Crisps] (accessed 2007-02-21) ]

In October 2005, Premier Foods Plc launched Branston Baked Beans. The marketing and promotion of this product was aimed squarely at challenging Heinz's dominance of the UK baked bean market. This marketing included an advert, featuring a Branston Bean Tin explaining how Branston Beans are very "saucy." Promotional activities included a 'Great British Bean Poll' where members of the public across the country were invited to blind taste both 'the brand leader' (assumed to be Heinz) and Branston. In the poll 76% of participants picked Branston over the brand leader. Heinz was subsequently obliged to re-evaluate its advertising strategy in the face of this aggressive activity, although in public Heinz spokespeople dismissed the challenge as a 'non-starter'.

References

External links

* [http://www.premierfoods.co.uk/our-brands/branston_home.cfm Branston Pickle on the Premier Foods website]
* [http://www.recipezaar.com/26952 Recipe for Branston Pickle]