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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Zoe Wood

‘The new ketchup’? How hummus spread beyond a niche into a British staple

A man dipping a strip of carrot in a homemade hummus
Hummus is no longer ‘just a dip’, says Ramona Hazan. Photograph: nito100/Getty Images/iStockphoto

It is a sign of the times. This week it was revealed that hummus is joining the list of foods used to measure the cost of living in Britain as the ubiquity of the dip at mealtimes sees it billed as the “new ketchup”.

The decision to drop a pot of hummus in the inflation basket is a moment for the all-conquering chickpea dip, which arrived on supermarket shelves in the late 1980s. Since then Britons have gone from spending virtually nothing to £170m a year on the versatile stuff.

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