Cerebos is a brand of
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
and, more recently, of other flavourings and nutritional supplements. Ownership of Cerebos brand is divided between
Kraft Heinz
The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage ...
in Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand,
Premier Foods
Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, Lyons, Sharwood's, Loyd ...
in UK,
K+S KS and variants may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* , a German postwar commando frogman force
* , a Norwegian type of company
* Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities
* PenAir, Peninsula Airways, Anchorage, Alaska, US (IA ...
in Western Europe, and Bud Group in South Africa. The product was developed by George Weddell, a Scottish chemist working at the British company
Mawson & Swan, and sold under the Cerebos brand by a new partnership, Mawson, Swan & Weddell.
The company Cerebos Ltd was later registered in 1894.
At the time of its introduction, salt was sold in large blocks from which the user would scrape what they needed. Free-running salt was a novelty because, left for any length of time, pure
sodium chloride
Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. With molar masses of 22.99 and 35.45 g ...
crystals would absorb sufficient moisture from the air to cause them to stick together, a phenomenon called ''caking''. Its slogan was "''See How It Runs''", because the salt contained anti-caking agents. The slogan was echoed in the product branding of a small boy chasing a chicken,
a reference to the superstition that birds might be caught by
pouring salt onto their tail.
Ernest Shackleton lists Cerebos salt among the few precious stocks taken in the James Caird on his trip with five men from Elephant Island to South Georgia as he attempted to engineer a daring escape from the Antarctic.
From 1923 until the mid 1900s, Cerebos Ltd had a factory at the then 10 Victoria Road, in
North Acton
North Acton is a part of Acton in west London, and is within the London Borough of Ealing. It runs adjacent to the industrial district of Park Royal. Historically part of the Municipal Borough of Acton in the county of Middlesex, it has formed pa ...
, northwest
London, UK
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
. The company was purchased by
Rank Hovis McDougall
RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange an ...
(RHM) in 1968, and the site was redeveloped into the 'Shaftesbury Gardens' housing development in the mid 1990's.
Cerebos salt is sold in Western Europe (including France where it is spelt Cérébos), Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Australian and New Zealand operations were part of
Cerebos Pacific, and now owned by Kraft Heinz which acquired most of its assets from
Suntory Holdings
(commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and makes Japanese whisky. Its ...
in 2018, and includes the well known local brands:
*
Greggs
Greggs plc is a British bakery chain. It specialises in savoury products such as bakes, sausage rolls, sandwiches and sweet items including doughnuts and vanilla slices. It is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on t ...
(NZ)
*Robert Harris (NZ)
*Bisto (NZ)
Raro(NZ)
*atomic (NZ)
*Whitlock's (NZ)
*L'affare (NZ)
*Bruno Rossi (NZ)
*Gravox (Australia)
*Fountain (Australia)
*Toby Estate (Australia)
*Saxa (Australia)
*Foster Clark's (Australia)
*Mocopan (Australia)
*Asian Home Gourmet (Australia)
Branding
A boy chasing a chicken and pouring salt over it is an icon that has become synonymous with the brand.
The Cerebos salt company invented '
Bisto
Bisto is a popular and well-known brand of gravy and other food products in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Premier Foods.
History
The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder which rapidly became a best ...
' gravy powder product (a mixture of salt, flavourings and colourings), at its salt factory in
Middlewich
Middlewich is a town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, east of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,595. ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. It was acquired by
RHM in 1968, which later sold its stake in Cerebos South Africa in the 1980s and Cerebos Pacific to Suntory in 1990.
References
6. Shackleton, Ernest, Escape from the Arctic, Penguin Books, Great Journeys, 2007.
External links
Cerebos France on escoCerebos South Africa*
Heinz brands
Premier Foods brands
Salts
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