Campbell's tomato soup is one of the top 10 grocery items purchased each week in America, according to its manufacturer. That's probably because the iconic pinkish soup still injects many with a feeling of comfort, childhood and home, not to mention 710 milligrams of salt per serving.
So it would seem silly to mess with this winning formula. Remember New Coke?
Still, the company announced Wednesday that it has reformulated its century-old recipe to contain just 480 milligrams of salt per serving, a level considered healthy under USDA and FDA guidelines, company spokeswoman Juli Mandel Sloves said Wednesday.
Before you start to stock up on the saltier version, Campbell's notes that it has tested the new formula in 50 states and promises it maintains "the same great Campbell's taste that people have known and loved for generations." The sodium reduction was achieved through "lower sodium natural sea salt and leveraging its proprietary flavor enhancements."
Sloves can't discuss those enhancements; Campbell's has patents pending on them.
The biggest question about the new tomato soup, scheduled to appear in supermarkets in August, remains: Will it taste as good on a rainy day when paired with a grilled cheese sandwich?
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