Did Subway discontinue yellow mustard in Canada?
That is the chatter on-line, as franchise homeowners on Reddit, customers on X and Fb, and a discover despatched out to folks of a college lunch program all allege the sandwich chain has stopped providing a beloved Canadian condiment.
On Thursday, some dad and mom of youngsters at a college in Kingston, Ont., acquired an e-mail discover.
“Subway will not be capable to present the ‘yellow mustard’ sauce choice transferring ahead,” reads the notice, despatched out via Lunchbox, an app for ordering college lunches on-line, and obtained by CBC Information.
“On behalf of Subway we’re very sorry for this inconvenience and hope that we are going to have yellow mustard to supply within the new college yr.”
The impacted Subway areas requested that Lunchbox contact dad and mom and guardians, Marianne Kupina, advertising and marketing vice-president of KEV Group, which runs Lunchbox, advised CBC Information.
“I can verify that some Subway areas in Ontario have suggested us that there’s a mustard scarcity with their particular provider,” she added in an emailed assertion.
CBC Information has reached out to Subway International and North America for remark, which has but to reply.
Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Meals Analytics Lab at Dalhousie College in Halifax, mentioned he thinks the corporate could also be streamlining its menu as a part of optimizing its operations.
The demand for plain yellow mustard is down amid an more and more aggressive sauce panorama, Charlebois mentioned.
“Give it some thought, 20 years in the past it was simply ketchup, mustard, relish and mayonnaise, principally. However since then you’ve got … all kinds of sauces which have gotten some traction lately that make the classics sort of a lingering addition to the portfolio.”
A Fortune Enterprise Insights report printed final month says the condiment market has been experiencing vital progress, however can be shifting to fulfill new shopper calls for, similar to merchandise tailor-made to the recognition of Asian delicacies in Western nations.
And a Canadian Grocer article final yr mentioned Canadian sauce consumption elevated 5 per cent in 2022, however the progress largely got here from marinades and scorching sauces.
“I like to consider the sauce and condiment aisle as a form of reflection of Canadian society,” Kathy Perrotta, vice-president of selling technique and understanding at analysis agency Ipsos Canada, advised that publication. “The way in which we had been — ketchup, mustard, relish — [is markedly different] to the best way the inhabitants seems to be at present.”
‘Mustard is a key sandwich ingredient!’
Subway Canada has over 2,900 Subway eating places, all independently owned and operated by its franchisees.
The corporate has discontinued gadgets and adjusted its menu many instances in the previous — in 2023, it added new sandwiches and elements similar to beef brisket, for example. In 2022, virtually 900 folks signed a petition on Change.org to carry again the chain’s authentic candy onion sauce, which was changed with candy onion teriyaki. (A number of movies on TikTok nonetheless lament the change.)
However the obvious discontinuation of mustard has some social media customers upset, with many saying they might not order yellow mustard.
my complete world has been completely altered (subway discontinued common mustard which was a staple ingredient to my order for the final 20+ years of my life)
—@egbanner
“Why would Subway discontinue yellow mustard?!?? Mustard is a key sandwich ingredient! I have not modified my Subway order in over 20 years! Why now?” one particular person wrote on X, previously identified as Twitter, earlier this week.
“In Canada they’re going to discontinue the yellow mustard. In my retailer it is extremely common and I feel that there will likely be numerous clients sad about that,” wrote a Canadian Reddit person who recognized themselves as a Subway franchise proprietor.
“Convey again the mustard or endure the results of dropping main enterprise,” a person posted on Subway Canada’s Fb web page every week in the past.
A message purportedly despatched out to Canadian Subway franchise homeowners, posted a number of weeks in the past on Reddit, says the choice was made as a result of yellow mustard has seen “declining demand in Canada” and has develop into a “slow-moving” product.
CBC Information has not been capable of independently confirm the message, however has reached out to the franchisee who posted it, in addition to a number of different franchise homeowners in Canada, who both did not reply or declined an interview request.
Subway Canada’s web site and app nonetheless listing yellow mustard as an choice on its menu when ordering sandwiches on-line, though its phrases and situations state that every one merchandise listed on its websites are topic to availability and restaurant participation.
Canadian mustard {industry} nonetheless robust
Canada was the world’s prime exporter of mustard seeds in 2021, in accordance with Statistics Canada, however “rising situations that yr contributed to decrease manufacturing and a world scarcity.”
In keeping with knowledge launched earlier this month, Canada’s mustard seed manufacturing plummeted in 2021 to 60,532 metric tonnes, the bottom yield since 1979, however climbed again upwards in 2022. Final yr, the yield was 170,710 metric tonnes.
International demand for Canadian mustard seed “stays robust,” with exports holding regular over the previous 5 years and the variety of acres devoted to rising the crop trending upward, mentioned Jeff English, vice-president of selling and communications at Pulse Canada, a foyer group for Canadian pulse crops.
Most of the nation’s mustard seed is grown in Saskatchewan, StatCan notes.
Rick Mitzel, govt director of the Saskatchewan Mustard Growth Fee and CEO of Mustard 21 Canada, mentioned he is not seeing an industry-wide decline in demand for yellow mustard. And the mustard {industry} in Saskatchewan is robust proper now, he added, with growers anticipated to plant 500,000 acres of the crop this yr — though farmers are involved the massive provide will drive down costs amid falling exports, in accordance with The Western Producer, a Saskatoon-based publication.
If Subway is certainly discontinuing yellow mustard, Mitzel suspects it might be partly due to its current menu adjustments, which embrace the additions of much less mustard-friendly rice bowls and salads.
However he understands why persons are alarmed concerning the rumours.
“It is a fairly essential a part of the financial panorama,” he mentioned.
Mustard may be very Canadian, Charlebois mentioned, and added {that a} main model discontinuing it has the potential to carry up some provide chain politics, like when Loblaws briefly stopped promoting French’s ketchup, which is constructed from Ontario tomatoes.
“There is a love affair between Canadians and mustard.”
Canada’s dominant condiment crop comes of age.
