Purple Sauce Ed Baines

Red and brown sauces could soon be joined on Britain’s breakfast tables by a purple sauce.

The brainchild of celebrity chef Ed Baines, the ketchup-style Purple Sauce is launching next month into Premier Inn hotels. It will be exclusive to the Whitbread-owned chain for six months, after which there are plans to turn it into a retail product.

Purple Sauce is inspired by recipes for blackberry ketchup that date back 400 years, and which Scandinavians would use with game, poultry and pork.

The updated formula contains 41% blackberry puree, along with cider vinegar, sugar, onions, garlic, red chilli, smoked sea salt, celery salt, black pepper and toasted cumin. It is manufactured by Hastings-based BD Food.

“It’s the first time I’ve worked on product development for the trade, and I think we’ve come up with something really delicious,” said Baines, a judge on ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish and co-owner of London restaurant Randall & Aubin. “The market is dominated by red sauces and brown sauces for breakfast, and this is a purple sauce. It sounds quite strange, but on the plate it looks good, and it works really well with breakfast. The basis of blackberries, being a sweet-sour flavour, goes beautifully with pork. And it will work with just about anything you are barbequing too.”

The table sauces category, including mayonnaise, is worth £547.2m and fell 1.4% on volumes down 3.5% [Nielsen 52 w/e 11 October 2014]. Brand leader Heinz Tomato Ketchup rose 2.6% over the period to £120.5m.