From Caveman Connotations to Culinary Success: The Bone Broth Boom
Jessica Leather, co-founder of the British company Freja, has a confession to make. She absolutely adores bone broth, but she wishes it had a different name. 'The crux is that the word "bone" is off-putting,' she explains. For many consumers, it conjures images of 'a caveman gnawing on some animal part.' With a resigned sigh, Leather notes that Americans were the first to popularise the liquid, and that's what they called it. So, bone broth it remains.
The Birth of a £9 Million Business
Leather, 47, a former lawyer raised in a household where her nutrition-focused father drank 'broad-bean smoothies,' launched Freja with her husband, Ed Armitage, in 2020. Armitage, with an e-commerce background, observed bone broth's soaring sales in the United States. The duo decided to test the market, commissioning an initial batch and listing it online. To their astonishment, it sold out completely within just two weeks.
By 2024, Freja had achieved a turnover of £5 million. That figure surged to an impressive £9 million by 2025. This remarkable growth underscores a burgeoning consumer interest in health-focused, traditional food products.
Demystifying Bone Broth: More Than Just Stock
The obvious question lingers: what exactly is bone broth? According to Leather, it is the liquid produced by simmering leftover, roasted bones—such as from a chicken—in water. This description might sound identical to stock, but there is a crucial distinction. While stock is typically cooked for three to six hours, bone broth undergoes a much longer simmering process—at least 12 hours and sometimes extending up to 48 hours.
This extended cooking time is not without merit. 'The longer you simmer the bones, the more good things—like protein and collagen—you extract from them,' Leather emphasises. Regular consumption of bone broth is believed to offer multiple health benefits, including improved sleep and skin quality, reduced inflammation, and enhanced gut health.
A Product with Celebrity and Chef Endorsements
Bone broth has garnered a dedicated following. England football captain Harry Kane has publicly stated that 'the natural health benefits of bone broth are undeniable.' The culinary world has also embraced it. Outside chef Thomas Straker's new London restaurant, Acre, a hatch sells takeaway cups of bone broth for £5, akin to a coffee stand.
Leather acknowledges that her products command a premium price. A £7 carton accounts for the 24-hour cooking process and high-quality ingredients: water, onion, carrot, salt, herbs, and the bones from an entire Norwegian chicken. The Norwegian sourcing is deliberate, as farmers there do not use antibiotics on their animals.
Empowering Home Cooks with a New Cookbook
To make bone broth more accessible, Leather and Armitage are publishing their first cookbook, The Bone Broth Book, on Thursday. Filled with broth-based recipes, the book aims to show people how to prepare and utilise bone broth affordably at home.
The cookbook features a diverse range of recipes, including:
- A spicy fish bone broth soup
- A simple beef bone broth minestrone
- Classic chicken bone broth
- Beef Pho using ready-made broth
- Italian Penicillin Soup for wellness
- A Ribollita-style minestrone
- Provençal Garlic & Sage Sipping Broth
- Hot & Sour Prawn Tom Yum
- Feijoada, a Brazilian black bean stew
- One-Pan Prawn Jambalaya
Each recipe is designed to highlight the versatility and nutritional depth of bone broth, transforming it from a simple sipping liquid into the foundation of hearty, global dishes.
From its challenging name to its premium positioning, bone broth has defied expectations to become a multi-million-pound success story. With the launch of their cookbook, Leather and Armitage are poised to further demystify this ancient elixir for the modern kitchen, proving that sometimes, the most traditional ingredients can fuel the most contemporary of business ventures.
