Turkey Twizzlers set to make a comeback 15 years after Jamie Oliver's campaign

The new and improved Turkey Twizzlers will go on sale from Thursday in two flavours, Original Tangy Tomato and Chilli Cheese.
Reign Thornton (age 3), from Gorleston, views a 3m high statue of a Turkey Twizzler that is unveiled at Bernard Matthews’ Great Witchingham Hall in Norwich, Norfolk as it makes a comeback after 15 years – now with two flavours, it’s healthier and tastier than before.
PA
Charlie Duffield17 August 2020

The Turkey Twizzler is set to return to dinner plates after manufacturer Bernard Matthews announced it is relaunching the controversial product with double the turkey meat of the original.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was previously instrumental in the demise of the Twizzlers, after he called them bad for children's health during a TV campaign for better school dinners.

After the Jamie's Dinners series in 2005, school meals contractors dropped them and they were discontinued.

However, now the new and improved Turkey Twizzlers will go on sale from Thursday in two flavours, Original Tangy Tomato and Chilli Cheese.

The company said it would like the product to go into schools eventually, and the firm's marketing director David Leigh said: "We have been discussing the return of the Twizzler for some time.

"Obviously we'd like the product to go into schools, but for the minute, we've focused on going into what I guess you'd call mass market retail."

Mr Leigh said the new version had an improved 70% meat and is just 87 kcal.

He said: "If you look at our product now and let's say you compared, say, two pork sausages to two Twizzlers, there's 83% more saturated fat in two average pork sausages compared to two Twizzlers.

"So we have spent a lot of time making sure that we are delivering a healthy, a significantly healthier, product than it was before. It is very much a different product."

Mr Leigh claimed the remaining 30% of the new Turkey Twizzler is made of "a blend of herbs and spices".

He added: "It is crucial for us that it is a really flavoursome product that people enjoy eating and it complements the high-protein content you normally get in turkey."

Mr Leigh said Bernard Matthews had worked with a nutritionist to make sure the new Twizzler was "a really balanced product" and could be eaten as "part of a balanced meal".

Previously, the corkscrew strips of processed meat contained just 34% turkey, with added water, pork fat, rusk, coating, additives, sweeteners and flavourings.

They were typical of the type of cheap, highly-processed food offerings available on school menus.

Bernard Matthews, which is owned by the 2 Sisters Food Group, has called the return of the Twizzlers the "comeback of the century", and said it was in response to consumer demand.

A Change.org petition in 2018 attracted more than 27,700 signatures from people calling for them to be reintroduced into supermarket freezers.

The new-style Twizzlers will at first be on sale in Iceland on Thursday, followed by other supermarkets in the near future.

This weekend a 3 metre-high Turkey Twizzler statue was unveiled at the company's headquarters, Great Witchingham Hall, in Norwich, and the original Twizzler-making machines have been recommissioned to make the new products.

However, speaking to The Guardian, Barbara Crowther of the Children’s Food Campaign said: “The fact it’s taken Bernard Matthews 15 years to reformulate the Turkey Twizzler shows what a truly terrible product it used to be.

"Doubling the turkey content still only takes it to 67-70% meat content, and while it’s a healthier version of its former self, it remains an ultra-processed product.

“We recommend sticking to fresh, whole, free-range and/or organic turkey, low-fat, high in protein and with no added sugars at all.”

The Standard has approached Jamie Oliver for comment and is awaiting a response.