‘The new ketchup’? How hummus spread beyond a niche into a British staple
It is a sign of the times.This week it was revealed that hummus is joining the list of foods used to measure the cost of living in Britain as the ubiquity of the dip at mealtimes sees it billed as the “new ketchup”.The decision to drop a pot of hummus in the inflation basket is a moment for the all-conquering chickpea dip, which arrived on supermarket shelves in the late 1980s.Since then Britons have gone from spending virtually nothing to £170m a year on the versatile stuff.“What this shows us is that the UK diet is now global,” says Ramona Hazan, whose first name is emblazoned on pots of hummus stacked in supermarket fridges across the country.
“There is a lot more Middle-Eastern food as mainstream and supermarket ranges are reflecting that.”The success of Ramona’s says it all.Hazan started the company in the kitchen of her London flat in 2004 with a £25 Kenwood blender.The brand was recently valued at £24m and now produces 80-100 tonnes of hummus a week.Asked whether the hummus had become, as one Times columnist put it, “officially middle-class ketchup”, Hazan says she “hopes so”, but adds: “I don’t think it’s only middle class.
It is everywhere.It is a healthy alternative to a lot of things on the market.“You used to take it to a party and dip your crisps in it, whereas now it is not just a dip.Use it instead of mayonnaise.It’s a sandwich filler.
You see tons of posts on Instagram and TikTok showing what people are doing with it,”The possibilities for hummus are it seems endless,Social media feeds are full of food influencers putting a dollop of it in “health bowls” alongside quinoa and avocado,Hazan adds that it can also be added to soups and mixed through pasta,“Even if you’re eating it with crisps you’re eating something that’s full of chickpeas.
You wouldn’t take a bowl of chickpeas and eat them.This is a way of eating more fibre and more pulses.”Waitrose was the first British supermarket to stock hummus, in 1987.The dip’s arrival merited an ad in the staff magazine that described its “exotic Mediterranean flavour” and tasted “delicious served with hot toast or pitta bread”.There is no need for tasting notes now, says Jonny Forsyth, a senior analyst at the market research company Mintel.
“Hummus has become a British staple, something people buy and consume almost as habitually as bread and milk.”This reflects the broader rise in popularity of Middle Eastern cuisine, according to Forsyth, helped by the expansion of restaurants serving food from this region and the influence of street food and meze culture.Chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi, the cookbook writer Claudia Roden and the Lebanese chef and author Anissa Helou have done much to popularise Middle Eastern foods in recent years.Ottolenghi says it is “great that people are eating so much hummus, even if it is served as a dip in a tub”.In the Middle East it is made freshly, mostly in dedicated restaurants, he says, and tastes “so much better.
But if I had to choose a commercially made sandwich filler or sauce, I’d much rather have hummus than ketchup or even coleslaw.”To any refuseniks left in Britain, the restaurateur and food writer says hummus “really is” delicious and nutritious: “Chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic – all wonderful ingredients that are really good for you.”Other supermarkets followed Waitrose’s lead and now hummus is taken for granted in lunchtime meal deals, packed lunches and petrol stations.Some people might remember where they were during the 2017 hummus crisis when shelves were emptied after customers complained of a metallic taste.Fast-expanding supermarket ranges now include everything from reduced-fat pastes to versions made with beetroot or jalapeno.
Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, sells hummus in 18 versions, from tiny snack pots to 500g tubs,There is also a trend for gourmet versions featuring extra virgin olive or truffle oil that Waitrose is calling “maximalist hummus”,The inflation basket is updated once a year by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to reflect changing shopping habits and ensure the official yardstick of the cost of living is as accurate as possible,In another nod to lifestyle changes in the UK, this year will feature alcohol-free beer for the first time,Stephen Burgess, the ONS deputy director for prices, says the addition of hummus and 0% beer shows how consumer spending is being shaped by “healthier lifestyle choices”.
The Waitrose ad from 1987 notes that the 150g and 300g tubs of hummus cost 42p and 79p respectively,Now a 300g pot of its cheapest own-label hummus costs £1,85,In a sign that “middle-class ketchup” is in the veins of its affluent customer base, Waitrose added hummus to its no-frills “essential” range nearly a decade ago,Lizzie Haywood, Waitrose’s trend innovation manager, says that over time hummus had gone from being an “exotic curiosity” to the “backbone of British snacking habits.
It’s the dip that opened our minds to the versatility of the humble chickpea.”
Family courts in England and Wales ‘not good enough’ for women and children, minister says
Family courts are “not good enough” and have treated women and children unfairly for decades, a government minister has said.Announcing a major overhaul of the family justice system in England and Wales that will play a central role in “rebalancing” the family courts, Alison Levitt said often brutal legal showdowns will be replaced with a “problem-solving”, child-focused model.Part of a move across the Ministry of Justice to tackle court backlogs, the department said child focused courts – which centre on child welfare and seeks out-of-court resolutions – have reduced child trauma, cut a backlog of cases and reduced waiting times.They will now become the standard model for all section 8 cases, which involve child arrangements including where that child lives, who they have contact with and how long they spend with each parent.The Labour peer, who was Keir Starmer’s principal legal adviser when he was the director of public prosecutions, said that she had been repeatedly accused of sexism since she became a minister last autumn, including as a result of the proposed repeal of the legal presumption that both parents should be involved in their children’s lives in the Courts and Tribunal bill, which passed its second reading earlier this month
HMRC anti-fraud scheme that wrongly cut child benefits to resume
A controversial government anti-fraud scheme that incorrectly stripped thousands of parents of their child benefit is to resume, despite ongoing concerns about inaccurate Home Office travel data on which the crackdown is based.HMRC used flawed Home Office travel records to deduce that thousands of parents who went on holiday or work trips abroad were fraudsters, with 23,800 families having child benefit payments stopped late last year.It was later discovered that the Home Office failed to record their return journeys and, in some cases, had incorrectly recorded people as leaving the country even though they had not boarded flights they had booked.These included a woman whose child became ill at the departure gate, and other people who made business trip bookings but then changed their plans without cancelling the outward journey.About 13,800 households were later found to have had their benefits suspended incorrectly, with 40% of families found to be ineligible for their benefit
Experts consider expanding meningitis vaccine eligibility after Kent outbreak
Experts are considering the case for routinely vaccinating more people against meningitis B in response to the fatal outbreak in Kent.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s review was announced after the health secretary, Wes Streeting, asked it to “re-examine eligibility for meningitis vaccines” for a wider range of people than those who now qualify.Health officials in Kent, where there have been two fatalities, said cases could spread outside the county as students return home for Easter. On Friday the UK Health Security Agency said there were 18 confirmed cases, and 11 more under investigation.The Guardian understands the JCVI started a review of the outbreak in Kent and is considering a wider review of eligibility for routine meningitis B vaccinations
Ambulance delays during power cut possibly contributed to man’s death, coroner rules
A family has welcomed a coroner’s conclusion that ambulance delays possibly contributed to a man’s death in 2019 after enduring “years of distress trying to pursue answers”.The family of Peter Coates said they had been met with “delays and resistance” from a regional ambulance service as they tried to discover the full circumstances of his final minutes.Kellie Coates, the daughter of Peter, said: “This process for us has not just been about managing grief it has been about challenging a system that seems to be more focused on protecting itself than it is on acknowledging and learning from mistakes in its processes.”Coates died aged 62 in the early hours of 14 March 2019 after a power cut stopped the mains-operated equipment he needed at home to breathe from working.An inquest in Middlesbrough heard Coates, of Redcar, rang 999 and an ambulance was dispatched by the North East ambulance service (NEAS)
Volunteers in the UK: what happened when your local charity shut down?
Across the UK, many small charities face increasing financial pressures, forcing some to shut their doors. When this happens, it can leave the people who relied on those services without support - and volunteers and communities trying to step in and keep things going.We’d like to hear from volunteers who have experienced a charity closing. Have you or others tried to continue the work informally and what were the challenges of doing that? Did you try to keep it going - and what difficulties did you face? What happened to the people who depended on the service?You can share your experience using this form.Please include as much detail as possible
‘It all feels very natural’: Britain’s sauna boom heats up as people seek warmth of human connection
From fields to floating pontoons, in horseboxes, barrels and beach huts, saunas are springing up across Britain. The British Sauna Society now lists about 640 saunas – up from 540 at the start of the year – while a recent report predicted that the UK could become the world’s largest sauna market by 2033, outpacing even Finland and Germany.“The continuing growth suggests that the peak has still yet to come – if there is one,” said Gabrielle Reason, the society’s director. But are saunas a tonic for the nation’s health – or a wellness fad with hidden risks?When it comes to measurable health effects, the strongest evidence relates to the cardiovascular benefits of sauna use. These are “substantial”, said Prof Setor Kunutsor, the Evelyn Wyrzykowski research chair in cardiology at the University of Manitoba in Canada
Stock markets rocked by Trump’s Iran ultimatum, as UK economy faces growth hit – business live
HS2 firm says new steel tariffs will ‘exacerbate’ cost pressures for UK construction industry
iPhone 17e review: Apple upgrades its cheapest new smartphone
Campaign groups rail against Palantir, but the UK contracts keep coming
Resilient Korda stuns Alcaraz in Miami Open after almost letting advantage slip
US high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus wins 800m to become youngest ever indoor world champion