What’s an eccles cake, you might ask? Well, these sweet treats consist of a demerara sugar-coated pastry crust filled with currants (hence the nickname “squashed fly cakes”). They originated back in the 1600s in the Lancashire town of Eccles, when they were baked for religious festivals known as Eccles Wakes. Today, the most famous brand is Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes, owned by the Edmonds family who have been baking them since the 1930s.
Based in Westerton, Scotland, the Mackie family have run a dairy farm since 1912. In 1986, they decided to start making ice cream, using the leftover cream from their semi-skimmed milk. They’ve never looked back. Today, the farm covers a whopping 1,600 acres and Mackie’s has created more than 1,000 ice cream flavours in its time. Thankfully, for indecisive customers, the company has since settled on a range of 12 core flavours.
The company that gave us Caramel Wafers and Teacakes has a history that stretches back more than 130 years: the Tunnock’s bakery was founded in Uddingston, Lanarkshire in 1890. Fast forward to the 1950s and Tunnock’s realised it needed to make products with a longer shelf life than bread and cakes. So, in the 1950s, it branched out into confectionery, creating the cherished Caramel Wafer (a chocolate-coated wafer and caramel bar) and the Teacake (mallow piped onto biscuit and covered in chocolate).
Seabrook’s crinkle-cut crisps have been a beloved British snack since 1945. They were created by Bradford fish-and-chip-shop owner Charles Brook when he decided to diversify his business by making crisps in his fryer. As for the brand name? It came about by a chance mistake. When Charles went to collect some photos, he saw they’d been labelled “Seabrook” rather than “C Brook”. He was rather taken with misspelling and the name has stayed ever since.
Found on supermarket shelves up and down the country, Frank Cooper’s Oxford Marmalade is one of Britain’s best-loved fruit preserve brands. The winning recipe was created by Sarah-Jane Cooper (wife of Oxford shopkeeper Frank) in her home kitchen in 1874. Today, Frank Cooper’s marmalade holds a Royal Warrant, meaning its products are supplied to members of the royal family.
Owing its name to the Essex coastal town of Maldon where its salt is harvested, this family-owned business has been producing premium sea salt for more than 140 years. It has a pared-back product range, consisting of its distinctive pyramid-shaped salt flakes in various sizes, and it still uses the same artisan methods that have been handed down through the generations.
Brought out in Britain and Ireland in 1996, Cheestrings were an instant hit, making sales of €16 million (£13.7m/$18.9m) in the first year. The peelable string cheese won over British consumers with its quirky adverts and fun concept, and by 2004, half of British households with children were buying them. The brand went on to launch elsewhere in Europe. Today, the firm lunchbox favourite is made by Strings & Things, which is owned by Irish food conglomerate Kerry Foods.
Known for its handy rigid-sided cartons, designed to reduce mess, Homepride flour can be found in home bakers’ pantries up and down the country. The flour was first made by Spillers in the 1920s but gained the Homepride brand name in 1963, when it was marketed as an ultra-fine flour that didn’t need to be sieved. Shortly afterwards, along came its mascot: Fred the Flour Grader. In fact, Fred’s become almost as well-known as the brand itself, and features on a number of collectables and antiques.
The only Worcestershire sauce brand to know, Lea & Perrins was born in Worcester in 1837. The piquant condiment was invented by two chemists, John Lea and William Perrins, when a visiting aristocrat asked them to recreate a recipe he’d discovered in India. The chemists kept one bottle aside for themselves, but didn’t like it, so stored it in their cellar for 18 months, after which it’d matured into a rich and tasty sauce. Today, the recipe remains a secret, although we know it contains vinegar, molasses, anchovies and tamarind extract.
Founded in Lifton, Devon in 1917, the Ambrosia Creamery initially manufactured dried milk powder for infants and troops during the First World War. The products it’s best known for today launched a little later: its creamy Rice Pudding was released in 1937 while its Devon Custard hit supermarket shelves in 1969. Today, Ambrosia is owned by Premier Foods, but its beloved custard is still made in the Devonshire creamery using milk produced in the West Country.
A store-cupboard staple in many kitchens, the story of the OXO stock cube goes back more than 150 years. In the 1840s, German chemist Justus von Liebig created a concentrated meat extract in London, which was then sold under the Liebig Extract of Meat Company from 1865. The OXO trademark was registered worldwide in 1899. It was sold in a bottle up until 1910, when the winning formula was distilled into its distinctive crumbly cubes, making it easier to use. Today, OXO also comes in vegetable, chicken, lamb and ham varieties and is owned by Premier Foods.
Kenyon Produce (KP) started life in Rotherham in 1853, when confectioner Charles Kenyon began selling jam. The brand gradually expanded to condiments, pickles and salty snacks. It was the first company to sell salted peanuts at a national level when it launched its KP Nuts in 1953. The manufacturer has since launched some of Britain’s favourite snacks: Hula Hoops in 1973, Dry Roasted Peanuts in 1982, and McCoy’s crisps in 1985. Although KP was bought by German firm Intersnack in 2013, it continues to manufacture its products in the UK.
Launched in 1967 by custard company Bird’s, Angel Delight has acquired mythical status. Just ask any Brit who grew up in the 1960s, ‘70s or ‘80s and they’re bound to remember being served the fluffy cloud-like dessert, which comes in strawberry, butterscotch, banana and chocolate flavours. Originally sold as a powder mix prepared by whipping it up with milk, Angel Delight is also now available in ready-to-eat pots.
Fish and chips are a British classic. And if you want to eat them in true chip-shop style, you should douse them in salt and malt vinegar, preferably Sarson’s. The nation’s number one vinegar brand has been making the stuff for more than 200 years and today produces 15 million bottles a year. Yet it still uses traditional methods, brewing British malt for seven days in wooden barrels. Many other malt vinegars are made in just 24 hours.
Four simple ingredients are at the core of Walker’s Shortbread: flour, sugar, pure butter and salt. Created in 1898 by 21-year-old baker Joseph Walker in the village of Aberlour, Scotland, the recipe has changed little over the years. As well as shortbread, Walker’s sells a variety of other biscuits, cakes and cookies, which all come in tartan packaging to reflect the brand’s Scottish heritage.
Fellow Scottish brand Baxters was founded in 1868 by George Baxter, a greengrocer who’d previously worked as a gardener for the Duke of Richmond. The company began with jams, but in 1929 added canned game soup to its offering. It became so popular that even upmarket London stores Harrods and Fortnum & Mason started stocking it. Other popular soup flavours including cock-a-leekie, Scotch broth and chicken broth arrived on the scene in the 1950s. The business is still family-owned, with Audrey Baxter currently at the helm.
For most Brits, it’s hard to imagine a Christmas without a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Yet this nostalgic treat started life quite differently: it was originally a chocolate apple. Terry’s sold its chocolate apples (which were also apple-flavoured) for a few years before creating the chocolate orange in 1932, which was immediately much more popular. Today you can buy milk or dark chocolate varieties, or opt for mini Terry’s segments and chocolate bars, all infused with Terry’s trademark citrus flavour.
The brand that gave us Cup a Soup and Super Noodles has been around for more than a century. Founded by former tea seller William Batchelor in Sheffield in 1895, Batchelors initially sold vegetables but branched out into dried soups in 1949, followed by its famous Cup a Soup range in 1972. Today, Cup a Soup is available in tried-and-tested flavours – tomato, minestrone and chicken – as well as new varieties, including Thai Chicken & Lemongrass and Szechuan Hot & Sour.
The Brits truly love their biscuits and Fox’s is one of the nation’s treasured brands. Founded in 1853 in Batley, Yorkshire, the bakery’s first product was the brandy snap. It’s since branched out to produce many national favourites including Crunch Creams, Rocky Bars and Party Rings. The company was sold to Fererro in October 2020 but its biscuits are still made in the UK. In Batley and Kirkham in Lancashire, in fact.
A staple for festival-goers, students and anyone in need of a quick food fix, Pot Noodle has been infamous on the British food scene since 1979. But the product wasn’t actually invented in the UK. The idea for instant noodles came from a man named Momofuku Ando, after he witnessed food shortages in Japan during the Second World War. Another Japanese company, Golden Wonder, transported the concept to the UK and Pot Noodle was launched in 1979. Today, the nostalgic nosh is still made in the original factory in Crumlin, South Wales.
“Cake” is a bit of a misnomer for this ultra-sweet and sticky snack that’s more like an energy bar. It was invented by accident in Cumbria in 1869 when sweet-maker Joseph Wiper left a batch of glacier mints to boil for too long and they solidified. Romney’s, the best-known maker of Kendal Mint Cake, was founded in 1918 and was the brand Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay ate on their historic Everest expedition in 1953. It’s still made in Kendal today.
Launched in 1972 as the retail brand of British Sugar Corporation – a company that had been growing the sweet stuff here since the 1930s – Silver Spoon quickly became a household name. Its sugar beet is still grown in the east of England and it’s the largest sugar producer in the country. Today, it sells sugar-free sweeteners, agave syrups and reduced-sugar blends alongside its core sugar range.
Wine gums, jelly babies and liquorice allsorts have been a fixture in British sweet jars for generations. And they’re all made by Maynards Bassetts, formed by the merger of two British companies, Maynards and Bassetts, in 2016. Liquorice allsorts have a particularly surprising history: in 1899, a Bassetts employee was carrying two separate trays of sweets to show a customer, when he tripped and mixed them together. The customer was so impressed with the combination that Bassetts decided to keep it and liquorice allsorts were born.
The story of Britain’s best-selling sausage brand began in 1889, when Louis Moore first began selling sausages in Liverpool. They were a huge hit and by 1917, Richmond was able to open its first factory. Today, the brand is owned by Kerry Foods and has moved with the times, adding meat-free sausages to its range in 2020 and plant-based bacon in 2021.
Established in York in 1862, Rowntree’s started out as a cocoa business run by a Quaker family, the Rowntrees. As well as creating some of the country’s best-loved sweets – including Fruit Pastilles (launched in 1881) and Jelly Tots (launched in 1965) – the family were pretty radical for their time. Joseph Rowntree, who was at the helm of the business in the Victorian era, campaigned for workers’ rights including an eight-hour working day, a minimum wage and better working conditions in factories. The brand was bought by the Swiss company Nestlé in 1988.
Burton’s might not be a household name, but its products – Jammie Dodgers, Wagon Wheels and Maryland Cookies to name a few – certainly are. Burton’s Biscuit Company started life in 1935 and today it’s the second biggest biscuit manufacturer in the UK. Jammie Dodgers, which consist of a splodge of raspberry jam sandwiched between two shortbread biscuits, are one of its most popular offerings and thanks to a recent revamp they’re also 100% vegan. The brand was acquired by the Ferrero group this year.
As the nation’s best-selling pasty brand (despite backlash from many Cornish people), Ginsters has been making its savoury pasties since 1969. The company started in the Cornish town of Callington, when dairy farmer Geoffrey Ginster turned his hand to making the quintessential West Country baked goods. Alongside its Cornish pasty, Ginsters also makes sausage rolls, steak slices, vegan pastries and more.
In 1880, a fish importing business was established in Liverpool by William Muirhead Simpson and Frank Roberts. That company, which started out as Simpson & Roberts, went on to become Princes. It opened its first canning factory in 1946 and started making many of the canned foods you can find on supermarket shelves today, including fish, meat and fruit. Princes is now an international grocery business that owns a number of other popular British brands including Branston, Flora and Batchelors.
Squidgy, fudgy and delightfully sticky, Soreen malt loaf has been a popular teatime treat for more than 80 years. The recipe was developed by a man named John Sorensen, with the inclusion of malt extract providing its trademark flavour, while dried fruits give it that squish-factor. The nostalgic snack is still made in Britain, at a factory in Manchester’s Old Trafford where a whopping 9,960 loaves are produced every hour.
Few things are more quintessentially British than a Sunday roast, and stuffing is a key part of that for many. Yet it hasn’t always been that way. Paxo started selling its pre-made stuffing mixes in 1901, but they didn’t sell especially well at first. Most Brits eschewed poultry (which stuffing is usually served with) because it was too expensive. When chicken became more affordable in the 1960s, Paxo boxes started flying off the shelves. Today it’s the best-selling stuffing brand in the country.
Yorkshire puddings are thought to date back as far as 1747. But it wasn’t until the mass trend for convenience foods, which swept the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, that you could buy pre-made puds to pop in with your roast. And Aunt Bessie’s was the first onto the scene. The company started out by supplying Butlin’s holiday camps in 1974, before major supermarkets began to stock them. Nowadays Aunt Bessie’s (which was acquired by the owners of Birds Eye in 2018) also makes roast potatoes, chips, stuffing mixes and more.
The nation’s favourite cheese brand, Cathedral City, can be found in half of British household fridges. The Cheddar producer started life in 1995, and since then has created its cheeses from 100% British milk, which is sent to its creamery in Davidstow, Cornwall. Today it’s owned by Saputo, which also owns Clover, Country Life Butter and Utterly Butterly.
Ultra-gooey, sticky and sweet, Lyle’s Golden Syrup has a history going back 140 years. The condiment was created back in 1881 by a London-based businessman called Abram Lyle. A deeply religious man, he emblazoned the green-and-gold tins with an image of a lion and bees from a story in the Old Testament. It’s stayed the same ever since. In the 1920s, Lyle’s merged with sugar company Henry Tate & Sons to become Tate & Lyle, although the iconic syrup is still sold as Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
Brits certainly love their jam, whether it’s with scones and clotted cream or slathered on toast for breakfast. And Hartley’s is the nation’s best-loved brand. It all began in 1871, when greengrocer William Hartley misplaced an order of jam so decided to make some himself. His concoction was so popular that he turned it into a business, branching out into jellies and marmalades too. Hartley’s jams are still made in Britain and it was named the country’s second favourite spread brand, after Marmite, between 2017 and 2020.
The history of this store cupboard staple dates all the way back to 1837. Alfred Bird, formerly a chemist, created the product by swapping traditional eggs for cornflour in his custard recipe, and Bird’s Custard Powder was born. The convenient product quickly became popular and Bird’s went on to make baking powder, semolina, ready-to-pour custard and other traditional British foods.
Bright yellow in colour and eye-wateringly pungent to the taste, Colman’s mustard is about as British as a condiment can get. It’s been made by Colman’s in Norwich for more than two centuries, using a winning formula that has changed little over the years. Mustard seeds are sieved up to nine times, which gives the mustard its ultra-strong flavour, with many ingredients grown in Norfolk. As well as mustard, Colman’s makes mint sauce, tartare sauce, and a range of seasoning mixes.
There’s one big difference between Bovril and its similar-tasting cousin, Marmite: Bovril contains beef extract, whereas Marmite is veggie-friendly. But interestingly, Bovril was actually invented to deal with meat shortages. In the 1870s, Scotsman John Lawson Johnston came up with the recipe when he was asked to supply beef extract to French troops but didn’t have enough of it. People loved the taste of his beefy concoction and before he knew it, he was supplying it to pubs everywhere. Bovril is often consumed as a hot drink, though it can also be spread on toast and used to enrich savoury dishes.
Gravy is traditionally made from the juices of roasted meat, but in 1908 two workers in a salt factory changed all of that. They created a meat-flavoured powder that could be mixed with hot water to create an instant gravy – a life-saving innovation for time-pressed cooks ever since. The famous “aah, Bisto!” slogan was introduced in 1919 and became part of the packaging in the 1950s. As well as the traditional gravy granules, today you can buy premade gravy pots, premium Bisto Best granules, as well as sauce and seasoning mixes.
This popular condiment owes its name to the village of Branston in Staffordshire, where it was invented almost 100 years ago. It was originally made by a company called Crosse & Blackwell, before being acquired by vinegar company Mizkan Euro in 2013, although it’s still produced in Britain today. The original pickle recipe, which is best served with a tangy cheddar, is made with carrots, onion, cauliflower, sugar, vinegar, and herbs and spices.
In 1876, a slump in the bread market led grocery shop owners Ellen and Thomas Warburton to bake their own bread. And we bet they’re glad they did. Their freshly-baked bread and cakes were such a hit with customers that the couple decided to rebrand their grocery shop completely, turning Warburtons into a bakery. Today, Bradford-born-and-bred brand is run by the fifth generation of the Warburton family and continues to sell classic products (Toastie, Farmhouse and Seeded Batch loaves) alongside newer favourites (Bagels, Thins and gluten-free baked goods).
The founder of Hovis pioneered a technique of separating wheatgerm from flour to retain its vitamins and minerals. In the 1890s, Hovis began supplying bread to the royal household– a development that certainly didn’t harm the brand’s image. Its iconic TV ad in 1973 where a boy pushes a bike up Gold Hill in Shaftesbury has recently been named the nation’s most iconic advert, while its Tasty Wholemeal is Britain’s favourite wholemeal bread.
While technically an offshoot of Rank Hovis McDougall (which was later acquired by Premier Foods), Mr Kipling makes so many of the nation’s favourite cakes it’s become a British institution. Sold in handy individual portions, some of the brand’s best-loved teatime treats include Cherry Bakewells, Angel Slices, Fondant Fancies, Jam Tarts and Bramley Apple Pies. As their marketing succinctly puts it, they really are “exceedingly good”.
What could be more British than a sauce with the Houses of Parliament emblazoned on the front of the bottle – and allegedly named after them? HP Sauce is the nation’s favourite brown sauce (made with malt vinegar, spices and fruit) and was invented by grocer Frederick Gibson Garton, who sold the recipe to HP in 1903. The product quickly became popular and was rumoured to have been used in the kitchens at the Houses of Parliament. Today, 28 million bottles of the beloved brown sauce fly off the shelves each year.
Britain’s favourite crisp brand Walkers started life in 1948, when a Leicester butcher turned his hand to crisp-making. He hit on the idea at the right time: it was just after the Second World War, rationing had ended, and crisps were gaining in popularity as a snack. Flavours capitalised on the popularity of British classics: Cheese & Onion was inspired by a ploughman’s lunch, Salt & Vinegar by fish and chips, and Prawn Cocktail by the 1970s dinner-party starter. Now the brand is well known for its Leicester-born brand ambassador and former footballer Gary Lineker.
The story of biscuit brand McVitie’s begins in Scotland in 1839, when promising baker Robert McVitie opened a bakery in Edinburgh. Quickly expanding the business across Scotland and into the rest of the UK, the now-ubiquitous Digestive biscuits entered the scene in 1892. Jaffa Cakes – which are still the subject of an ongoing biscuit-or-cake debate – came along in 1927. Other favourite products made by McVitie’s include Rich Tea, Hobnobs, Penguin and Club.
Best known for its “You either love it or hate it” tagline, Marmite isn’t so much a brand as a British institution. The umami product was invented, allegedly by accident, by a German scientist called Justus Liebig, who discovered a way of concentrating brewer’s yeast so that it was edible (although haters might disagree). The Marmite Food Company was founded in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire in 1902. Since then, it has remained controversial. Now, fans can buy everything from Marmite-flavoured cashews, chocolate and peanut butter to deodorant. There’s even a Marmite statue in Burton-upon-Trent (nicknamed the “monumite”).
We declare Cadbury, with its iconic purple-wrapped chocolate bars, to be our number one British food brand. The stalwart confectioner goes back almost 200 years, to when a man named John Cadbury opened a grocery shop in Birmingham, selling coffee, cocoa and drinking chocolate. The first Cadbury Easter egg came along in 1875, while Dairy Milk was launched in 1905. Although Cadbury is now owned by Mondelez International, around two-thirds of its chocolate is currently made in the UK and soon “almost all” of its Dairy Milk production will return to its historic Bournville-based factory.