Chefs owe a debt of gratitude to the thousands of Prepared Sauce and Condiment manufacturers who sell to foodservice.  Ready made flavor enhancers save restaurants lots of time and they make lots of money for Sauce and Condiment purveyors.  Sauces and condiments account for more than 4.5 billion pounds of product and $8.5 billion dollars in sales to foodservice distributors.

A new report entitled BEST Report on Sauces and Condiments polled 2335 foodservice operators on their purchasing habits and preferences specifically focusing on 21 major product categories.  Certainly there are more than 21 prepared sauces and condiments, but those in the table below represent a very large proportion.

According to the BEST Report, the five leading Sauces and Condiments ranked by tonnage are Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Pizza Sauce, Dressing and Mustard.  On a dollar sales basis, Mayonnaise steals the lead from Ketchup, which drops in rank to fourth place.  Some categories like Cheese Sauce, Salsa and a few others improve on their pound ranking and go up a few notches in sales rank.

Chain restaurants use an estimated 57% of all Sauces and Condiments.  Independent restaurants consume approximately 31% and institutions like colleges, hospitals schools and other non commercial operators account for 12% of volume.  One chain segment in particular, QSR Chains, can boast in excess of 1.6 billion pounds of sauce and condiment usage.