An almighty row over HP Sauce is rocking Twitter, as fans of the brown condiment vent their anger over a change in the 116-year-old recipe.
The new HP Sauce recipe has a lower salt content, to comply with health guidelines, but not everyone is happy.
“Now they've ruined the taste of HP Sauce by putting less salt in! If food was so flamin' bad in the past then why are old folk still alive?” asks fatbrenda on Twitter.
“The Nanny State changes HP Sauce recipe,” moans ArfurD.
HP’s U.S. owner, Heinz, has also cut the salt in another of its products, Daddies Sauce, after both of the condiments failed to meet Coalition targets for reducing the UK’s salt intake.
HP Sauce traditionally contained 2.1g of salt per 100g. It has now been cut to 1.3g.
Despite an outcry from sauce aficionados, Heinz defended its recipe change, saying HP had "benefited" from the firm's commitment to "reduce salt in line with health targets".
Heinz bought the greasy spoon favourite in 2005 and moved production to the Netherlands two years later, cutting 125 jobs in Birmingham.
A worker from Birmingham's HP Sauce company protests outside the factory against closure in 2006.
Such is the UK’s devotion to the stuff, an entire recipe book – The HP Sauce Cookbook – was written in 2008, featuring 40 recipes including casseroles, gravies and Bloody Marys.
Small compensation for the devastation caused by HP’s salt cut, may come in the form of HP Guinness, suggested as an accompaniment to sausage sandwiches, BBQ burgers or Guinness and Steak Pie.
And here's some vintage HP Sauce marketing from the 80s.
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2A6YPowfwk]
Tell us, are you having a nervous breakdown over the HP Sauce recipe change?
