Marmite, a beloved spread among British people, has introduced a peanut butter hybrid. Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
As Mars announces its acquisition of Kellanova, nothing epitomizes the homogenization of global snacking quite like the rise of peanut butter in the U.K. — where it has overtaken native English jam.
Why it matters: The U.K.'s legume boom has coincided with an increase in health-conscious consumption, to the point where Whole Earth brand peanut butter now outsells Sun-Pat, the sweetened market leader from 1946 to 2016.
By the numbers: Posh U.K. supermarket Waitrose now stocks 35 different varieties of peanut butter, per the NYT, even if it seems to have soured on the peculiarly British concoction that is Marmite peanut butter.
Between the lines: The PB&J remains an all-American sandwich, with too much sweetness and not enough umami for sophisticated Waitrose patrons.
As Axios chief snack correspondent Danielle Alberti notes with disdain, "British people have peanut butter and have jam and just can't bring themselves to combine the two."
The bottom line: Now that peanut butter has conquered the U.K., it's surely only a matter of time before Unilever's Marmite will claim its natural place on U.S. supermarket shelves.
