Food from around the world

Indian-style ingredients like curry powder and mango chutney were introduced in Sainsbury's stores in 1920, when a full choice of groceries was added to the original range of fresh provisions.

In areas with immigrant communities, Sainsbury's product range was often tailored to local tastes. The Swiss Cottage store, which opened in 1959, served an area where there was a large Jewish community. It sold a wide range of continental foods rarely seen outside a specialist delicatessen. These included salami from Italy, Hungary and Germany; hams and sausage from Poland,Yugoslavia and continental cuts of meat such as Boeuf a la mode and noisettes of lamb.

There was also a range of pasta, sauerkraut, continental crispbreads, Norwegian flat bread, Danish and Polish bread and grissini. Many of these products quickly became established as part of Sainsbury's product range in all larger new stores.

Chinese ingredients were first sold by Sainsbury's in Bristol in 1961, in response to demand from the local community, but spread into other stores. In the mid 1970s of a range of Italian wines was introduced at Kempston, near Bedford, which served a local community of former Italian prisoners of war.

During the 1980s a range of Japanese foods was available at the Telford store for workers at the Honda/Rover plant. Fresh Halal meat has been supplied by Sainsbury's longstanding supplier Lloyd Maunder since 2003.

With the growth of the affordable package holidays during the 1960s and 70s, British customers also became more adventurous in their tastes and ethnic convenience foods were introduced. By the 1980s, Sainsbury's range of exotic fruit and vegetables were being used as teaching aids for geography! In 1993 the launch of Sainsbury's Special Selection offered authentic specialist ingredients like balsamic vinegar and fine spices from around the world.