The sauce has been made in Birmingham for 100 years

Owners Heinz said in May it plans to close the factory next year with the loss of 125 jobs at the Aston site.

Production would be transferred to a state-of-the-art factory in Elst near Arnhem in Holland, the US firm said.

A delegation from the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G) is to meet workers in Holland to try to persuade them not to handle transferred work.

John Jordan, the T&G's acting national secretary for food, is to lead the delegation on Wednesday.

He said: "We are determined to meet our trade union colleagues in Holland to press the case for them not handling any HP work which may be transferred from Birmingham.

"No Dutch jobs are at risk but many UK ones are."

Heinz has said it is moving production because there is spare capacity at the Dutch site and it did not make sense to keep the Aston site open.

However, the move has sparked a widespread campaign to keep the iconic British brand in the UK.

Forty MPs signed a motion in the Commons asking Heinz to reconsider, while protests have taken place on Birmingham's streets.