California has been churning out Campbell's tomato soup for 62 years, and through all that time, the goal has remained the same: Keep the iconic soup tasting the same way it has since 1897.
That just got a lot harder.
In late July, the Campbell Soup Co. began shipping a new formulation of its oldest and often best-selling brand with a 32 percent cut in sodium that brings it in line with federal health guidelines.
In the processed-food business, that's a huge risk. Salt is an effective and cheap flavor enhancer with no known substitute. Even a 10 percent cutback can drive a nose dive in a product's "Hedonic Index" -- an industry measure of how much an eater enjoys it.
The Camden, N.J.-based company is getting the reduction by substituting low-sodium sea salts -- a proprietary blend from an undisclosed location -- as well as rejiggering other flavorings, also secret. The company has tested the new formula on consumers in all 50 states and says most people don't miss the salt or like the revamped version better.
Still, the new soup won't be labeled with a "low sodium" banner. The company worries that customers would associate that with blandness.
"We hope it's the biggest change you never notice," said Denise Morrison, president of Campbell Soup North America, during a visit to the company's agricultural research headquarters.
Campbell's officials say cutting sodium across its hundreds of product lines is the company's top strategic priority. Consumer awareness about the potentially negative health effects of a high-sodium diet is high, and there are important marketing implications as well.
Under federal rules, a food can't be advertised as "healthy" unless it contains 480 milligrams or less of sodium per serving -- exactly what's in the new Campbell's tomato soup.
The company is phasing out its "25 percent less sodium" tomato soup, which contains 530 milligrams. During the transition, the sodium level of this product is being reduced to 480 milligrams as well.
The transition to lower-sodium products will have ripple effects through the $8 billion company's entire supply
Each year, Campbell's buys close to 2 billion pounds of processing tomatoes from California farms, most within 75 miles of Sacramento.
To make soup, the tomatoes are churned into paste at Campbell's plants. Then they're shipped to the company's four main processing plants around the country. The company also breeds tomatoes at its 61-year-old research center in the fields southeast of Davis, Calif.
Originally derived from Roma varieties, the tomatoes now grown for Campbell's products are very different from the ones that went into the company's original tomato-soup plant in New Jersey over a century ago.
Today's tomatoes, such as a variety called CXD255, are boxier in shape than their ancestors, to pack better in trailers. They contain higher levels of solids and less water so that the company can squeeze more soup from each ton it hauls to the processing plants.
With the push to cut sodium, Campbell's breeders will be looking to enhance the flavor of the company's tomatoes so that they work better in low-salt products.
Contact Jim Downing at jdowning(at)sacbee.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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