Unless you buy mustard as yellow powder and mix it yourself, the taste
is now feeble compared to how it used to be.
The same applies to horseradish sauce. If you read the ingredients on
the jar, there is more turnip than horseradish in most of the recipes.
I only buy the brand with no turnip (by "English Provender Company").
It is sometimes possible to influence what happens. A few yers ago,
Jacobs launched a "New, improved recipe" version of Cheeselet biscuits.
They were horrible, so I wrote to them and complained that they had
ruined the taste I had enjoyed for years. I also recognised that having
spent a lot of money on advertising the new taste it would be difficult
to backtrack. They replied saying that they had tried various recipes
with a taste panel and this was the one that they preferred. They were
sorry it didn't appeal to me and they enclosed a voucher for money off
Jacobs biscuits (which I spent on anything but Cheeselets.
To cut a long story short, my complaint was obviously shared by others
and it affected sales, because some months later, "Original Recipe"
packs appeared on the shelves alongside the "New, improved recipe"
version, and a few months later the "New, improved recipe" version was
no longer stocked. Shortly after, the "Original Recipe" splash on the
packaging also vanished, and the taste was back to how it was before
they ruined it.
Jim