It was manner again in 2019 once they despatched me the Waitrose Strawberry and cream sausage for a tasting. I hadn’t been writing about meals for very lengthy, so when the banger arrived . . . pure hog casing, pork, English strawberries and crème fraîche with a ‘trace of mint’, I took it at face worth and believed that the brand new product growth staff had actually launched the factor ‘to rejoice Wimbledon’.

I used to be younger, I used to be naive, and above all I used to be thrilled to get the phrases “suppurating wen” into print. Rattling, I used to be happy with that picture! However it was the beginning of a protracted development, one which predictably enrages the meals chatterati and one which I’ve needed to be taught to stay with.

Each morning, the meals media skilled’s inbox brims with a boiling froth of contemporary press releases, some for hopeful new merchandise. Suppose “We’re disrupting the world of meat with our new yeast-based ham!” or “Oli & Wills’ ‘we-just-packed-in-our-city-jobs-and-moved-back-to-the-family-estate’ curated artisanal gins”, and all imbued with an uncalibrated pleasure that they hope is infectious. They’re sadly improper. After which, at suspiciously common intervals, notably from large manufacturers, you’ll see what I’ve grown to recognise as “Stunt Meals”.

I’m taking a look at one now. It’s from Heinz, asserting “Sizzling Cross Bun flavoured Mayonnaise”. In case you care about meals as a lot as I do, I recommend box-breathing — a way developed by US Navy SEALs to scale back stress in fight conditions . . . do it with me now. In for 4 . . . maintain for 4 . . . out for 4 . . . maintain for 4. Repeat till your BP returns to acceptable parameters.

They’re proliferating. Terry’s Chocolate Orange After Eights, Jaffa Cake flavoured gin. Perhaps they’re seasonal, like asparagus or norovirus.

That is my downside. The entrepreneurs roll out “extensions” to what are all the time described as nationwide treasure manufacturers and I reply with sclerotic, impotent rage. I don’t truly use these merchandise in any respect and possibly by no means would, however there’s one thing that simply snaps. My eyeballs come out, the veins pulse in my neck and my fingers pound the keys until my fingernails snap. WHY? WHY MESS WITH IT?

And, after all, I do know why. I do know precisely why. As a result of I’ve sat in these technique conferences and even written these bloody releases.

Have you ever observed the way it’s probably the most trusted manufacturers, the oldest, the originals, that may pull this off so effectively? If somebody providing superfood smoothies decides to do a Marmite flavour, no story. If Marmite launches a goji berry and chia model, it’s a touch upon the decline of civilisation, even a brand new entrance within the tradition warfare.

It’s a straightforward dog-whistle. Announce that you just’re taking salad cream off the cabinets, suggest altering the recipe of a conventional sauce or threaten to scale back the variety of fingers in a preferred bar of chocolate and we collectively reply with an entire cancan line of jerking knees.

Most of those concepts are simply plain foolish. The nation has definitely drawn a veil over these strawberry and cream sausages. Whenever you truly attempt to discover a jar of the accursed bun-flavoured mayo, to be able to style it and be publicly scornful, you shortly uncover this entails coming into a draw to win one among 100 within the “restricted version”.

The factor to understand, although, is that these ridiculous, infuriating and infrequently fairly revolting-sounding launches truly create a virtuous circle.

The producer develops and publicizes the product, the media amplify, the viewers expertise feelings starting from eye-rolling to rage, then, as soon as its accomplished is figure, the variant quietly fades away whereas the unique is strengthened. Clients and model are each completely happy. And infrequently, no one has to really eat the stuff.

tim.hayward@ft.com