New standard in vegetable preserves

As part of its mission to help people eat more vegetables and legumes in the healthiest possible way, HAK is the first in the market for red cabbage with apple and beetroot to set a new recipe standard. In addition to the popular classic bestsellers, the vegetable manufacturer from Giessen is introducing two new products that, based on delicious recipes, no longer contain added sugars and salt. And are made tasty with natural ingredients such as herbs, spices and vinegar.  

The total amount of sugars in the new recipes is only formed by the natural sugars present in the beetroot, cabbage and apples. With this, the new products also fit in with the recommendation of the Schijf van Vijf of the Voedingscentrum.

And even those naturally present sugars are considerably lower in the new recipes according to HAK than in the classic products. The Red Cabbage, for example, uses specific apple varieties that give a delicious, slightly sweet taste and contain little sugar. The new HAK products that will be introduced to the supermarket in the coming months mark the drive for innovation that HAK has imposed on itself for several years: to improve existing products and develop new ones using the healthiest possible combinations of ingredients and recipes. The underlying strategy aims at no added sugar, little to no salt and only natural ingredients.

Challenge: no sugar and salt but still delicious with natural ingredients

The success of traditional HAK recipes such as red cabbage with apple and beetroot is the tasty and unique taste that still has a strong consumer preference.

"With these immensely popular products it was quite a challenge for our culinary product developers to make them as tasty as traditional products and also without sugar and salt. They shouldn't be literal copies, but new "modern" interpretations with natural ingredients, herbs and spices such as cinnamon, onion and lava. And of course fresh sweet apples in the Red Cabbage.  And they managed to find two out of dozens of recipe ideas where people don't have the need to add sugars and salt themselves during the preparation. That would be the horse-back-of-the-car," says Nicole Freid, Director Innovation & Marketing at HAK.

The traditional varieties Red Cabbage with Apple and Red Beets remain in the assortment, according to Freid. As laid down in the most recent covenant between canning producers in 2017, HAK has also significantly reduced the sugars and salt in these classics. Namely the sugars up to 20% and the salt content up to 40%.

Consumers now also alert to naturally present sugars

HAK advises consumers who want to eat healthily not only to look at whether or not added sugars are present, but also at the naturally present sugars. This is, for example, very topical for Applesauce 0% (without added sugar).

Nicole Freid: "As a manufacturer, you can say that you no longer have added sugars, but if the apples you use are very sweet and contain a lot of natural sugars, then the intended health gain is partly nullified. Because sugar is sugar. As part of our innovation strategy, we have also committed ourselves to getting the naturally present sugars at a very low percentage, but of course to maintaining a tasty, slightly sweet taste. We do this by working together with Mother Nature and choosing the right apple mix.

With Applesauce 0%, HAK has succeeded in choosing tasty, fresh-sweet apples with little sugar. This product contains only 9.5 grams/100 grams of natural sugar. "And that is very low for an apple sauce," says Freid.