Across restaurant menus and retail shelves, cooking sauces and condiments are no longer finishing touches—they’re the reason people order, repurchase, and come back.
According to a Griffith Foods survey, 92% of consumers1 are open to trying new products in the condiments and sauces category, a number that signals both sustained demand and significant room for differentiation. Meanwhile, 60% of consumers look forward to a restaurant’s unique sauce, condiment, or dressing when deciding where to eat.
For food processors, foodservice operators, and retailers, the opportunity is clear: Invest in sauce and dressing innovation that gives consumers something worth reaching for.
Condiments As the Selling Point
Condiments have become one of the most accessible ways for consumers to personalize a dining experience without changing the entire dish. A well-designed sauce can dial heat up or down, bridge familiar and unfamiliar flavors, and make a standard menu item feel curated.
A recent study found 1 in 4 Gen Z and Millennial consumers say they bring their own condiments to restaurants—a clear signal that consumers increasingly want to customize their eating experience.
Valeria Hernández Ramírez, Regional Corporate Executive Chef at Griffith Foods, sees this customization coming hand in hand with a chef’s ability to create indulgent and practical products.
An example could be our spicy sauce creations, which range from mild to fiery—where we ourselves can decide how much to add upon application and thus control the level of heat in our food. Every experience will be different, and we will be the ones guiding just how spicy we want the products to be.
The Rise of Premiumization in Condiments
Premiumized condiments and table sauces have grown considerably since 20152. Between 2020 and 2024, the category saw a 24% growth. In 2025 alone, 453 new premiumized condiment and gourmet sauces were introduced globally, underscoring momentum that shows no signs of slowing. Globally, curiosity is the top driver when consumers try new sauce flavors, and condiments have become one of the lowest-risk, highest-reward ways to act on that curiosity.
Flavor That Works With the Whole Plate
As the Craveable Texture trend highlights, today’s consumers are highly attuned to how food feels, not just how it tastes. Sauces that pool, soak, or weigh down a crispy coating undermine the full eating experience.
Griffith Foods’ Flavour Glaze, a product from our Texture Perfected innovation platform, was developed with exactly this in mind—a format that delivers rich flavor while preserving the crispiness and texture that make a dish memorable. This makes it possible for your crispiest menu items to maintain their crispiness even after enduring delivery, leaving consumers satisfied no matter how they’re eating your food.
Signature Condiments Shaping This Trend
The most commonly used condiments across the globe remain recognizable favorites: soy sauce, mayonnaise, and tomato ketchup. Other condiments, like BBQ sauce, mustard, and hot sauce are also seeing increased usage. Here’s how the world is making the most of these types of sauces.
- Soy Sauce: Soy sauce is frequently used in the base of marinades, the broths of soups and stews, and will continue to dominate the space due to its versatility.
- Mayonnaise: Food manufacturers are moving beyond the basics of mayonnaise—Nando’s Perinaise blends in smoky paprika and tangy lemon. Chicago’s Marconi created a Giardiniera Mayo, mixing pickled vegetables to deliver a tangy and mildly spicy sauce.
- Ketchup: Ketchup is showing up in marinades, like in Grillmeister’s Puten-Grillies turkey skewers. Itoham Ketchup-in Chicken Nuggets from Japan reveal another approach—filling a crispy coating snack with ketchup for a one-bite, no-mess experience.
- BBQ Sauce: Different regions are taking unique spins on BBQ, like KFC in South Africa creating cola BBQ sauce in a limited-time offer, or Indonesia’s Richy Jinju using savory BBQ pepper steak flavor to spice up their rice crackers. Keep in mind: many consumers are actively cutting back on sugar, introducing new opportunities to offer reduced-sugar BBQ sauces to capitalize on this trend.
- Mustard: Mustard-flavored snacks continue to dominate, including Vico’s Poulet Moutarde, mustard and chicken-flavored potato chips. Mustard is also being infused into proteins, like Australia’s Three Aussie Farmers, which offers a burger that comes with pre-packaged mustard sauce.
- Hot Sauce: Hot sauce takes many forms to elevate the spice profile of a dish. Domino’s in France launched harissa fries, while Indonesia used hot Thai chili sauce to level up crispy snacks like deep-fried macaroni.
Global Innovations
Across markets, operators are putting distinctly local twists on those formats, and consumers are responding.
- Malaysia: A seafood chain now serves fish and chips with spicy tomato and garlic cheese sauces rather than traditional malt vinegar.
- France: Harissa has replaced classic pommes sauce to dress fries in casual dining contexts.
- Philippines: Hot cheese and meat chili dips are elevating burger formats.
- UAE: Garlic sauce has become the defining finish on chicken shawarma melts loaded with pickles, potato wedges, and cheese.
- US: The sweet and spicy sauce, hot honey, has been sweeping through the United States, now included in 11.3% of menus.
How to Make Condiments Excel
Brands are increasingly positioning condiments as elevated essentials—delivering not just functional taste, but indulgence, authenticity, and nutritional reassurance. Six value drivers are fueling what the industry is calling the Condiments Renaissance.
- Limited editions create exclusivity and excitement, giving consumers access to rare and unique flavors that feel worth seeking out.
- Ingredient quality is non-negotiable. Premium sauces made with high-quality, natural flavor ingredients deliver superior taste, nutrition, and peace of mind to discerning consumers.
- Origin and authenticity matter just as much, as consumers gravitate toward products with genuine provenance and traditional flavor profiles they can trust.
- “Free from” credentials, like allergen-free, additive-free, and made from sustainable sources, speak directly to a consumer market that expects more from its condiments.
- Sensory experience is what ties it together in the moment: premium condiments elevate meals through taste, aroma, and texture, working in concert.
- Purity closes the loop for shoppers who read labels as carefully as they read menus—wholesome, uncompromised flavor free from unnecessary ingredients.
Chef Hernández Ramírez’s development process is built around exactly these values:
Every time I start developing a product, I like to understand the need behind it—why it’s being created—and to understand who will consume it and when. One of the questions I always ask myself when we have the final prototypes is: Is it so delicious that I would buy it for my own home? How would I use it? This helps me find perfection and balance in every creation.
Inspiration from Global Processors
In retail, sauce-inspired seasoning is applied directly to snack products. Think condiment flavors translated into coatings, chips, and crackers, like Lay’s famous ketchup chips exclusive to Canada or Italy’s Croccantini flavored with honey mustard.
In foodservice, elevated flavor combinations like apricot ginger mustard or pomegranate-harissa are differentiating menu items at a category level. Glazes are bridging the gap between sweet and savory in protein applications, while versatile dipping sauces are turning grab-and-go formats into more complete eating experiences.
Level Up Your Sauces
Condiments have earned their place at the center of food innovation strategy. Consumer openness is high, the premiumization wave is accelerating, and the brands capturing attention are those with genuine craft behind the bottle, packet, or squeeze.
To explore how crafted condiments and other flavor trends are shaping product development in 2026, visit Griffith Foods’ Food & Flavor Outlook.
FAQs
Sauces and condiments are now a primary purchase driver. 60% of consumers say a restaurant’s unique sauce influences where they choose to eat. 92% of consumers are open to trying something new in the category.
Six factors are converging: limited-edition exclusivity, high-quality natural ingredients, authentic origin stories, clean-label credentials, multi-sensory eating experiences, and ingredient purity. Together, they’ve fueled 24% category growth between 2020 and 2024.
Beyond flavor, sauces offer a low-barrier way to personalize and elevate familiar formats. Global examples, from harissa fries in France to garlic sauce on shawarma melts in the UAE to hot honey sweeping US menus, show how a single condiment can reframe an entire dish.
1 Griffith Foods Survey, February 2025.
2 Mintel GNPD June 2025.
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