The food industry only allows it to be sold as “tomato seasoning”, not “tomato ketchup”. Triggered by a series of tests conducted by an Israeli food company also selling ketchup. The tests revealed that, although Heinz boasts over 60% tomato as an ingredient, there was only 21% tomato concentrate in each bottle. The Heinz parent company, Diplomat, tried to argue that their proportions of tomato concentrate were acceptable according to American and European ketchup standards. At that point, the Israeli health ministry got involved and insisted that Heinz must change their labels from “ketchup” to “tomato seasoning” if they want to continue selling their popular product in the country.
Low tomato content
Now, just a minute! Heinz just admitted that the standard for what’s called ketchup in the United States has only 21% tomato in it. And that’s tomato concentrate, not fresh tomatoes. Tomato paste (with no added salt) contains a significantly higher amount of sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates per serving than raw tomatoes.
The company’s website posts the nutritional information and ingredients of all of their products. For the ‘original’ variety of ketchup sold in the USA, there are 4 grams of sugar per 17 grams of ketchup. So, what’s the rest of ketchup made of? Vinegar, 2 different types of corn syrup (fructose), salt, and other undisclosed spices.
Poster Comment:
Heinz is a Jewish company.