We know you love your hot sauce.
You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. And, there are a lot of people that share your passion for spicy condiments. Indeed, you probably already know that hot sauce is the fastest-growing segment in the American condiment market.
So, can hot sauce take on ketchup?
America’s Favorite Condiment Is…
Almost unbelievably, there’s something Americans love more than ketchup. It’s just not the favorite condiment we tend to think it is. That title goes to… mayonnaise. And, not just by a little either. We like mayo is a lot more than ketchup.
According to information released by Euromonitor, Americans buy some two billion dollars worth of ketchup annually. And, we only consume about 800 dollars worth of ketchup in the same time-span. That’s more than double in the mayonnaise camp.
Maybe that’s because food snobs feel that you should never add ketchup to hot dogs (totally ignoring the fact that most Americans only add ketchup to their dogs). Or maybe it’s because we’ve all started using mayonnaise to everything (along with sriracha). But, it could just be that you can buy reduced-calorie or low-fat mayonnaise, and you can’t trust ketchup with those qualities.
So Where Does Hot Sauce Stand?
Hot sauce may be the fastest-growing condiment segment, but Americans only consume about $550 million of hot sauce annually. Now, that does beat mustard; we only eat about $450 million worth of mustard every year.
So, can we expect a hot sauce takeover of the condiment market?
Not quickly. Americans may consume more than double the amount of hot sauce than we did about a decade ago, but the popularity of mayonnaise is still rising steadily. So, we may be able to conquer ketchup in a decade or two, especially if more people refuse to add ketchup to their hot dogs. But, we’ll have a difficult task taking on mayonnaise.
Still, it is possible, especially if we all do our part. That means buying as much hot sauce as you possibly can… and spreading the word to all of your friends and family (Christmas is around the corner, after all). And don’t worry; you won’t be alone in doing this. Even mayo is afraid of hot sauce’s power; that’s why you find so many hot sauce/mayonnaise hybrids on the market today.
Or, perhaps you shouldn’t take the competition between condiments so seriously. Why should you? There are people that put ketchup on their hot dogs, and people that complain about it, and neither one is really right.
