Famed Rao’s sauce is moving to New Jersey

Camden, New Jersey is going to need a whole lot of pasta!

In a surprising deal that was announced this week, Camden, New Jersey based food giant Campbell Soup Company purchased Sovos Brands, based out of New York, the producer of the famed Rao’s pasta sauce.

Rao’s has been rated one of the, if not the top brand of jarred pasta sauce available on the retail level here in the Unites States. I use it as a filler when I don’t have time to make my homemade sauce and I think without a doubt it’s the best jarred pasta sauce out there. The flavor is outstanding.

The reported price of the Campbell purchase of Sovos was $2.7 billion dollars. That’s a lot of sauce. In 2022, according to Food Navigator USA and public information, Rao’s accounted for over $837 million dollars in sales. This represents 70% of Sovo’s revenue steam.

The announcement of this acquisition sent Rao’s lovers into a frenzy, many of them taking to social media to display their displeasure and fear that Campbell’s will “industrialize” the world class recipe of Rao’s sauce which prides itself in using high quality and natural ingredients in the making of their popular sauce. No added sugars, additives, tomato paste or even water are used in making Rao’s.

In a released statement, Campbell Soup CEO Mark Clouse promises and pinky swears that he’s not going to change the recipe of Rao’s, still, Rao’s fans are very skeptical. Rao’s fans are staging a hoarding of the popular sauce before the official takeover. I don’t know if we must go to that extreme, but I’ll be buying an extra jar or two just in case. Good luck to us all.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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