- The world’s hot sauce market is expected to grow from $2.89 billion in 2022 to $4.72 billion by 2029
- The top 5 hot sauce companies are McIlhenny Company, McCormick & Company, Inc., The Kraft Heinz Foodservice, B&G Foods, Inc. and Baumer Foods Inc.
- The Asian market in hot sauces is expected to reach $134.60 billion in 2023
- China accounts for generating the most revenue from hot sauces at $41.34 billion
- The average volume per person in the Asian hot sauce market is expected to reach 8.7kg in 2023
- There are currently more than 400 types of chillies in the world.
The stats don’t lie. People around the world just can’t get enough of hot sauces.
That fiery chilli pepper, which originated in the Americas, was well known to the Incas and Mayans who used them as a type of medicine. Along came Christopher Columbus who named them “pepper” and introduced them to Europe following his conquest of South America.
From then on, chillies spread across the globe. And the rest, as they say, is history.
If you love all things spicy and hot, read on. We’re going to tell you about the hot sauce industry in 2022 and 2023 together with some fun facts and figures about the chilli, the key ingredient in the world’s hot sauces.
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Hot Sauce Statistics
Chilli peppers, together with vinegar, salt, fruits, vegetables, and garlic, are used to make hot sauce. Also known as chilli or pepper sauce, this sauce is made commercially by blending chilli pepper paste with red tomato puree, and then cooking it to obtain its unique flavour.
The introduction of innovative sauce flavours with health benefits, the rising demand for fast and frozen foods among busy urbanites, growing urbanisation, rising immigration and cultural exchanges, are some of the factors behind the growth in the hot sauces market.
This market has been on an upward trajectory in growth for decades and is only set to grow in the future. The global hot sauce market is expected to grow from $2.89 billion in 2022 to $4.72 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 7.26% in the forecast period of 2022-2029.
North America is the dominant region in the global market.
The top hot sauce companies in North America are:
McIlhenny Company based in Louisiana in the US. Their flagship product, Tabasco, has been on the scene since 1868 and is made from tabasco peppers, distilled vinegar and salt. There are 8 varieties of Tabasco sauce.
McCormick & Company, Inc. is based in Maryland. The company was founded in 1889.
McCormick is a global leader and is on the Fortune 500 list. Its flagship hot sauce is the old bay hot sauce made from aged red cayenne peppers, vinegar, spices and paprika. McCormick also owns Cholula Hot Sauce and Frank’s RedHot Sauce, which are popular hot sauce brands.
The Kraft Heinz Foodservice is headquartered in Chicago and was established in 2015. The company provides traditional hot sauce in single-serving pouches as well as bottled sauce, both in single bottles and in bulk. It also produces three other hot sauces, Tapatio Hot Sauce, Texas Pete Hot Sauce, and Red Devil Cayenne Pepper Sauce.
B&G Foods, Inc. is based in New Jersey and is another old company that started in 1889. It makes and markets more than 50 brands. B&G Foods produces hot sauce under the Trappey brand. Trappey’s products fall into two major categories—high quality peppers and hot sauces, including Trappey’s Red Devil Sauce.
Baumer Foods Inc. can be found in Metairie in Louisiana. The company has been making hot sauce since 1923 with 12 varieties of its famous Crystal Hot Sauce in its stable. Crystal Hot Sauce is the most popular hot sauce in North America.
Let’s take a look at hot sauces in Asia, known for their fiery cuisine.
Hot Sauces In Asia
Revenue in the hot sauces market segment in Asia is estimated at $134.60 billion in 2023. The market is expected to grow annually by 6.04% (CAGR 2023-2027).
Compared to the rest of the world, most revenue from hot sauces comes from China ($41.34 billion in 2023).
In terms of volumes of hot sauces in the Asian market, volume is expected to amount to 43,874 mega kg by 2027. The segment is expected to show a volume growth of 5.0% in 2024.
The average volume per person in the Asian hot sauce market is expected to amount to 8.7kg in 2023.
Top countries consuming hot sauces include China, the US, India, Japan and Indonesia.
The spread of Asian cuisines, particularly Indian, Chinese and Korean cuisines, across the world is the key factor driving demand for hot sauces.
With the advent of globalisation, the migration of various immigrants, primarily from the Asia-Pacific and South American regions, has increased significantly in industrialised western economies.
For example, the US has the highest number of Mexican immigrants, followed by those from China and India. This has had a deep impact on population dynamics as eating habits change quickly.
Obviously, this has led to an increase in the popularity of immigrants’ home cuisines, which use a number of chilli sauces and spicy condiments.
Products containing cayenne pepper, spices and chillies are predicted to benefit from the popularity of regional and ethnic cuisines as people develop a taste for ethnic food from around the world.
The hospitality and tourism industries are expanding globally, furthering the globalisation of numerous cuisines. Tourists, who fly quickly around the globe favour a variety of robust and fresh ethnic flavours.
The gourmet cooking trend and the popularity of cooking at home during restrictions has contributed to the ready availability of numerous cayenne pepper sauces in retail outlets and younger consumers are catching on.
Business marketing firms are currently producing Chilli Sauce market reports in 2023 providing key insights to the market segment. The Chilli Sauce market report names the top player in the hot sauce market as:
- La Costena
- Sriracha
- Franks Redhot Sauce
- Cholula
- ABC Extra Pedas
- Real Thai
- Peri Peri
- Aroy-D
- Shing Kee
- Tabasco
- Lao Gan Ma
Hot Sauce Market In Europe
Europeans have been notoriously slow to catch onto hot sauces but that is now changing quickly.
An example is the British singer Ed Sheeran, a lover of Heinz Ketchup, who has teamed up with Kraft Heinz in creating a new hot sauce called Tingly Ted’s. It is scheduled for a global launch this year starting in Australia, New Zealand and Europe where Sheeran is due to tour.
Health Facts About Chillies
Let’s turn to some fun facts about chillies and their health benefits.
Chillies and most hot peppers have very real health benefits.
But first some fun facts.
Did you know that birds, most slugs and many other animals are immune to chillies’ heat? This is because the hot compound, capsicum, only affects mammals. As birds spread the seeds of chillies, they obviously need to be immune to the heat.
Chillies were also one of the first domesticated plants. Peruvian farmed chillies more than 6,000 years ago.
The hottest chilli on the Scoville Scale is the Carolina Reaper at 2,200,000 SHU. In comparison, the jalapeño measures 10,000 SHU while the habanero measures a mere 350,000 SHU.
Another fact is that Chipotle and jalapeños are the same chillies. The difference with chipotle is that humans smoke it to release that woody flavour.
There are more than 400 different types of chillies.
Now, on to the health benefits.
Chillie peppers have more goodness than oranges in terms of Vitamin C content. Chilli peppers contain almost double the amount of vitamin C than oranges. These spicy peppers clock in a whopping 107 mg in Vitamin C versus the 69 mg found in oranges.
Plas, they’re packed full of high amounts of Vitamin A, an antioxidant.
Chillies also aid digestion and are good for gut health. The alkaloid capsaicin stimulates the stomach and intestines to produce digestive juices to process the food you eat. The mouth also produces more saliva to aid digestion.
Cayenne peppers are often used in first aid treatments. The powder is said to normalise blood pressure and will aid the coagulation of blood from a wound. It was commonly used in the 19 century to seal wounds.
Capsicum is also known to alleviate pain. This is the reason it is found in many over-the-counter arthritis creams and sprays.
So, chillies in hot sauces not only tickle the taste buds but they have a number of health benefits too.
Next time you see a friend lavishly spreading a hot sauce on their meal, join them － it’s good for you. And as the hot sauces industry statistics prove, a huge number of people know this too!
Sources/ Sauces 😛
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/hot-sauce-market-100495
https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/articles/top-5-companies-global-hot-sauce-market
https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/food/sauces-spices/asia
https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/food/sauces-spices/europe
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/hot-sauce-market-A15167
https://www.mraccuracyreports.com/report-sample/470732
Nathan has always been captivated by numbers and patterns. With a Master’s degree in Statistics, he’s honed his skills to decipher complex data sets and discern market trends.
Over the past decade, Nathan has worked with various firms compiling and analyzing industry spending figures to forecast market movements.