- Encona was the first Caribbean hot pepper sauce to be in UK supermarkets
- Grace Foods UK, no. 1 supplier of Caribbean food and drink, is marking the 50th birthday of its iconic sauce with in-store campaigns with independents across the UK
- The celebrations will also include pop-up parties in London and 50 fabulous food dish ideas to spice up the summer
- Hot sauce is the runaway food success story of the past decade
Grace Foods UK, leading supplier of Caribbean food and drink, is celebrating the 50th birthday of its iconic hot sauce brand, Encona, with the launch of limited-edition anniversary branding that will be rolled out across its whole range.
The branding will pay homage to the legendary hot sauce brand with limited-edition 50th anniversary emblemed signature packaging and will be available to buy in convenience stores.
"Encona is still the UK's best-loved hot pepper sauce, we are very proud of that, and we are keen to pull out all the stops to celebrate this momentous occasion,” said Kimberley Lue Lim, Head of Marketing for Grace Foods UK. “From the early days of the launch in London in 1975 of the first Encona sauce – the West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce – to 2025 where we now offer a range of fantastic sauces and chilli jams made with inspiration from not only the Caribbean but also from India, the Far East and the USA.
"Our trade activity, which includes in-store shopper activations with independents across the UK, will be a key part of our 50th anniversary campaign. For customers who aren't aware of Encona's 50-year legacy and its Caribbean heritage, the anniversary celebrations will raise awareness of the fact that Encona is THE original hot sauce in the UK market."
There are also some consumer activities planned including a partnership with Time Out London for Hot Sauce Summer. Encona will be the hot sauce partner of Time Out Eat Street at Between the Bridges - an exciting seasonal food and entertainment pop-up venue on the South Bank, nestled between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge, featuring an outdoor beer garden, street food, live music and DJ nights.
This year, Between the Bridges has partnered with Time Out which has curated London's best street food vendors for the food area, now called Time Out Eat Street. Here, for two months, four of the handpicked Time Out foodie faves at the pop-up - Rack City Ribs, Homeslice, Patty & Bun and Rogue Sarnies - will serve an exclusive Encona-inspired dish. There will also be a bespoke ‘Hot Sauce Station' at Time Out Eat Street.
Time Out London will also be working with its network of food connections from food writers, chefs and passionate home cooks on “50 Dishes for 50 Years”, a curated digital guide to delicious Encona-powered dishes focusing on barbecue-ready food - ideal for the summer and for its sauces and jams.
"We are sharing 50 new Encona dishes with the country. The dishes proposed by top chefs, food writers and passionate home cooks have been handpicked by Encona in collaboration with Time Out," continues Kim, "which we hope will inspire a new generation of hot-sauce-lovers to discover the brand, get cooking and really spice up their summer this year!"
Encona will also be partnering with Great British Chefs, which will see the creation of five recipes - one for each decade of bold Encona flavour - that will be shared across all of the go-to-website for foodies' social media channels. Journalist and food writer Melissa Thompson has written a Love Letter to Encona in which she talks about her lifetime connection with the hot sauce brand as part of the campaign, while the Great British Chefs Kitchen in-house recipe development team have created the Encona-inspired recipes.
Since its launch in 1975, Encona has become a firm favourite with many celebrities. While the popular '80s Trinidadian actor Rudolph Walker (Love Thy Neighbour, The Thin Blue Line, EastEnders) added some celebrity sparkle to the launch of Encona in supermarket stores in the 1980s, a number of well-known personalities have publicly declared their love for the sauce. These include Naomi Campbell, Alesha Dixon, Gordon Ramsey, Rylan Clark, Jade Thirlwall and Romesh Ranganathan. A bottle of Encona was even used by then Prime Minister David Cameron to spice up his sardines on toast in the Downing Street kitchen in a TV show following a day in his life in 2015.
This classic recipe hasn't changed in more than 40 years – blending only the very best habanero and scotch bonnet peppers with traditional island spices. But there are now a further eight hot pepper sauces in the range, including chilli jams.
Encona has a rich heritage in the Afro-Caribbean community, as well as Indian and Asian households in the UK, but its enduring popularity is due to the cross-over into British households.
