Campbell Soup’s iconic tomato variety has been a natural pairing with grilled cheese dating back to the 1940s.
Now, the 155-year-old company is taking that association a step further with the debut of Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup — the packaged food maker’s first-ever limited-time soup flavor. The product will be available on grocery store shelve through National Grilled Cheese Day on April 12.
“This innovation builds on the recent growth of LTO’s (limited-time offer) in the marketplace,” a Campbell Soup spokesperson said in an email to Food Dive. “As we look to lean into food trends like LTO’s, when developing our first-ever limited time only flavor, we knew that our first had to be our most ownable.”
Campbell’s tomato soup was created in 1895. But it wasn’t until the Great Depression that grilled cheese started appearing. With many Americans looking to stretch their dollars, combining bread and cheese was a way people could feed themselves, according to Food Republic.
During WWII, grilled cheese was paired with readily available canned tomato soup in establishments such as government institutions, military mess halls and school lunch rooms as a way to add nutrition.
The new product launch comes as soup, tomato-based foods and grilled cheese stand out as top trends in 2024, Campbell Soup said, citing data from the New York Times, Technomic and the National Restaurant Association.
The New Jersey company has observed a 53% increase in online conversations and a 20% jump in positive sentiment on social media about tomato soup and grilled cheese since last year, the spokesperson said. Campbell Soup estimated there are 132 million grilled cheese and tomato soup eating occasions annually.
Even though Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup is the first limited-time soup flavor at Campbell Soup, the spokesperson said the company “certainly don’t expect it will be our last!”
