We're thrilled to announce the launch of Signature – a brand new premium own-brand range from JJ Foodservice, starting with a collection of 16 herbs and spices.

The range has been created for caterers and home cooks who want great quality at competitive prices – with the full range starting from just £1.49.

What's in the range?

The range includes 16 products spanning everyday essentials like ground black pepper, oregano and cumin through to specialty ingredients like sumac and Isot Pepper.

One to watch is Isot Pepper – a smoky, mildly hot Turkish chilli with a deep, sweet, raisin-like flavour and earthy richness. It's traditionally used in Turkish cuisine but is starting to be used increasingly in 

The Signature range features colour-coded packaging – green for herbs, red for spices and off-white for other products – making it quick and easy for customers to grab what they need at a glance.

Sezer Ozkul, Chief Product Officer, said: "We created the Signature brand to give our customers a premium own-brand option that offers premium quality at every day low prices. We'll be expanding the Signature brand over the coming months with new products that reflect what our customers are looking for."

What is Isot Pepper (a.k.a Urfa Chilli)?

Isot (also known as Urfa biber) is a smoky, mildly hot Turkish chilli with a deep, sweet, raisin-like flavour and earthy richness. It's made from peppers grown in the Şanlıurfa region of south-east Turkey, dried using a unique process of sweating and sun-drying that gives them their distinctive dark colour and oily texture.

It's not widely available from UK wholesalers – making this a genuinely different addition to our range.

Why it's growing in UK kitchens

Isot pepper has quietly been making its way onto menus well beyond Turkish restaurants.

Here's why chefs across the UK are paying attention:

Ottolenghi stocks it as a core pantry ingredient – Yotam Ottolenghi, the Israeli-born, London-based chef widely credited with transforming how Britain cooks, lists Urfa chilli flakes among the flavours that "define Ottolenghi." His cookbooks have sold over a million copies and are credited with taking once-niche Middle Eastern ingredients like sumac, za'atar and tahini into mainstream British kitchens. You can even buy it in Ottolenghi's online shop: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/products/urfa-chilli-flakes 

Popularity has grown 35% year-on-year – driven partly by social media trends like whipped feta dips on TikTok and a broader appetite for complex, layered heat. [Source: sanitaspices.co.uk]

Leading spice expert Lior Lev Sercarz – who sources ingredients for Michelin-starred chefs like Eric Ripert – calls it an "everything spice" that "goes on literally anything, whether raw or cooked, sweet or savory." Read more here. 

The full range is available to order now at jjfoodservice.com and across all of our branches.