Goose fat

Sales of RH Amar’s Cooks & Co goose fat are up 64%

Goose fat is selling like greased lightning as Brits get ready to roast their festive spuds.

Fine food distributor RH Amar said retail volume sales of its Cooks & Co goose fat were up 64% this November compared with the same period a year ago, while Mintel’s 2013 edible oils report showed 11% of Brits had bought goose fat – up from 6% in 2012.

The market had been growing every year for almost a decade, suppliers said, and exploded in 2006 when TV chef Nigella Lawson mentioned on the Jonathan Ross Show that she used goose fat on her spuds.

“Sales went through the roof,” said John Goodwin, commercial director at Oxfordshire-based distributor Highgrove Food. “That year, we could have sold every jar twice over.”

RH Amar product marketing manager Anne-Marie Cannon said goose fat was increasingly considered a kitchen essential. “We see strong base sales all year round,” she added.

Goose fat faces competition, however, with Heston Blumenthal last month reported to have said he prefers beef dripping for making roast potatoes.