McDonald’s used Heinz ketchup until 1973, when there was a tomato shortage. Heinz was forced to give priorities to their store brand ketchup and was unable to supply McDonald’s with enough ketchup that year. McDonald’s terminated their contract with Heinz and commissioned their own private brand of ketchup. Heinz has been aggresively trying to win McDonald’s back as a customer, because the amount of ketchup McD’s uses is equivalent to about 11% of Heinz’s worldwide sales.
Also, I remember about a quarter of a century ago, Heinz used to sell bottled ketchup with chopped onion pieces in it. I fell in love with the stuff. Apparently it must have been test-marketed as they abruptly stopped selling it. It apparently wasn’t as popular as the regular ketchup.
I didn’t read the whole thread, but Heinz recently went from HFCS to real sugar. This could be it; the packets could still be HFCS and your bottle might be real sugar.
The way I interpret that is, other companies buy tomatoes and “make” ketchup. Heinz grows their own tomatoes from specially bred seeds that provide optimal Heinz tomato ketchup flavor from start to finish. Heinz ketchup is “grown” – from Heinz tomatoes on Heinz farms by the Heinz Ubermensch worker, etc.
Its an intriguing slogan because it manages to promote the idea of a completely controlled, genetically modified food product yet somehow avoids association with industrial agriculture or the “better living through chemistry” era of food advertising. To it’s discredit, however, it’s a bit too subtle.
Heinz is the preferred brand here. Hunt’s tastes to me like it has pineapple juice in it.
There used to be a difference between restaurant Heinz ketchup and that intended for home use. I know because that was one of the tasks of my first job - waitressing. Every night we refilled the ketchup squeeze bottles. It was packaged in one gallon cans which said, “For restaurant use only” on them.
It does taste different. But I don’t know if it’s more exquisite for classy diners or simply less expensively made.
Apparently, Dallas Jones, you have never met a member of the Hunt family. Ahem. Priveleged folks is priveleged folks. Even if they got rich cooking tomatos.
Incidently, my grandmother made her own ketchup. It took forever to boil down to the proper thickness. It was delicious but nothing like Heinz which to me IS ketchup.
Hunt’s and Del Monte abandoned the “catsup” spelling in the 1980s, when the Reagan administration declared that “ketchup” (but not “catsup”) qualified as a vegetable for making up school lunches.
They have apparently retired the pickle that used to appear in the center of the label (which never made sense since their ketchup never had pickles in it).
According to that page, there’s a code on the cap of each bottle where the company can tell what farm the tomatoes were grown on, where the bottling took place and what seed variety was used.
I own stock in Heinz and a couple years ago they sent me a package with 8 of their tomato seeds in it. I got four very robust, quite prolific plants out of it. You can see some of the yield here. I do believe you can purchase them from seed companies.
Hmm since this zombie has been resurrected, I’ll take this opportunity to ask if anyone has tried “Simply Heinz” ketchup.
I was going to buy ketchup at the store the other day and 70% of the Heinz on display was this Simply Heinz stuff. But it was in huge bottles. I don’t want to risk getting something that is not exactly the same Heinz I’ve been enjoying for the past 30 years and be stuck with a huge bottle of it.
Can’t help you ZipperJJ. Still got my bottle of Heinz Organic (it was on sale for the same price as the regular, stop hitting me!) from last season in the fridge.
A lot of people don’t know Heinz history, and a lot of things about Heinz don’t make sense without it. The pickle is from Heinz’s beginnings as a general canner…they canned and sold vegetables, as well as relish, pickles, sauces (remember Heinz 57?) and, yes, ketchup. Now, of course, they’re mostly famous for ketchup and other condiments, but the pickle was their trademark for over a century.
It’s marketing it doesn’t mean anything. It facilitates the association with wholesome growing things not processed day glow glop from huge multinational corporations. The facilitation process does not work well on some people.
Did you take a look at the web page I posted? According to it, they decided on the pickle after a pickle-shaped pin they gave out at the Chicago World’s Fair became unexpectedly popular. I still find it odd that it took so very long for them to change it.
I think the difference between the regular Heinz and the Simply Heinz ketchup is that the regular stuff is sweetened with corn syrup and the Simply Heinz stuff is sweetened with sugar. I can’t tell the difference, but then I didn’t taste them side-by-side.
For the past few decades, Heinz has been developing their own variety of tomatoes and only purchase the crops from growers that use Heinz seed under specific conditions. I suspect this ensures a consistent product.
I’m way late to the party but I’ve got a bunch of Mickey D’s “Fancy Ketchup” in the fridge and it’s not Heinz. Your issue is probably with McDonald’s own special recipe and not with Heinz.
A couple of tasters at Consumer Reports is hardly evidence for throwing out the article. I wonder how the relative sales of the Target ketchup and Heinz are even in Target (with what is no doubt a price difference.)
BTW, I wonder if ketchup makes zombies taste better.
IIRC, there used to be a little picture of a pickle on their ketchup jars. Not sure if it’s still there or not. Seems like the 57 was a number they picked out of thin air also as they didn’t have that many varieties at that time.
