# Why is purple ketchup disgusting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095 "2010-08-04T02:45:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Althea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@Althea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Althea)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/21 "2010-08-04T19:02:13Z")
I think part of the problem with the purple ketchup was that it was vaguely pearlescent. It really looked more like hand soap than food. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/22 "2010-08-04T19:31:25Z")
An interesting question. I have huge hang-ups with food being the wrong color. I also have a hang-up about red ketchup. I can eat other red things, including spaghetti sauce, but not ketchup, because it looks like blood. I think I’d actually rather eat a French fry dipped in blood than ketchup, as long as it was my own. I know, it just makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/23 "2010-08-04T19:37:51Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Maybe there’s an unconscious trigger or psychological effect regarding spoilage. For example, I would never eat green bread. As a kid I used to make blueberry muffins from a Pilsbury blueberry muffin mix. The recipe calls for draining the blueberries. I never did. Instead I mixed in the blueberry juice into the batter. What came out were the most delicious, fluffy and large blue green blueberry muffins. Since they look thoroughly disgusting, grossly moldy and inedible to everyone else, I got the whole dozen for myself. Still works as an adult, too. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/24 "2010-08-04T19:38:07Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > … After all, it’s perfectly edible. It’s ketchup! … > > There’s a contradiction here … Yes that’s a good point. Ultimately purple ketchup is disgusting because it tastes like ketchup. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/25 "2010-08-04T19:42:06Z")
Some US states used to mandate that butter subsitutes like magarine had to be coloured pink to distinguish them from real butter. These laws (which were struck down by the supreme court) were driven by the diary industry in order to make magarine unappaeling. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/26 "2010-08-04T20:05:10Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Maybe there’s an unconscious trigger or psychological effect regarding spoilage. For example, I would never eat green bread. Purple sounds very much like rotten tomatoes. Blue or green, I think, wouldn’t trigger my spoilage reflex. I used to stop grad school roommates from drinking my orange juice by keeping it in a clear container and adding a drop or two of blue food coloring. It came out a lovely shade of chartreuse - which no one else considered drinkable. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/27 "2010-08-04T20:48:50Z")
I like diced onions and dill relish on my hot dogs, but it’s a pain in the ass to chop onions everytime I prepare a hot dog. So, I started mixing them together. The pickle juice preserved the onions and I could spoon them both out at once. Well, one day I had some purple onions… Now I have some 600 grams of onion relish that I know damned well is quite delicious, but I have trouble eating it because the stuff is a kind of pinkish purple. I suspect that the same color wouldn’t prevent me from enjoying some kind of jelly, but it doesn’t look like it should taste like relish. It doesn’t look like it belongs on a hot dog. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/28 "2010-08-04T21:07:15Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > In case you can’t tell, blue is the only food colour I won’t eat. My wife’s aunt has this particular aversion as well. I mean, to the point of picking out blue M&M’s and throwing them away, or refusing to eat a cupcake or piece of cake with even a trace of blue frosting on it. Intellectually she knows it’s safe to eat, but claims she’ll actually gag if she tries to eat it. (On this I must take her word; I’ve never seen her make the attempt.) I’ve always found this exceedingly weird. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/29 "2010-08-04T21:33:17Z")
> [@These are my own pants](#): > > Some US states used to mandate that butter subsitutes like magarine had to be coloured pink to distinguish them from real butter. These laws (which were struck down by the supreme court) were driven by the diary industry in order to make magarine unappaeling. Even after that was struck down in 1902, the ruling still allowed laws that made it illegal to sell yellow-dyed margarine. There were also federal taxes on margarine, which differentiated between colored and white margarine (no civil rights for butter substitutes?). At one time, margarine manufacturers packaged a little capsule of yellow food coloring with the margarine so that consumers could dye it yellow themselves. That persisted through WWII. Up until quite recently, laws against dyed margarine continued to exist in Quebec, Canada. They repealed it in 2008. In the US, federal taxes on margarine, colored or otherwise, persisted until the Truman administration. A timeline: [http://www.margarine.org/historyofmargarine.html](http://www.margarine.org/historyofmargarine.html) From 1902: > [@](#): > > Amendments to the Federal Margarine Act raised the tax on colored margarine five-fold, but decreased licensing fees for white margarine. But demand for colored margarine remained so strong, that bootleg colored margarine flourished. Bootleg margarine … what a concept. One imagines oleo-runners in souped-up Hudsons with secret compartments of yellow dyed spread under their floorboards evading the dairy-board police … ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/30 "2010-08-04T21:36:38Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > I like diced onions and dill relish on my hot dogs, but it’s a pain in the ass to chop onions everytime I prepare a hot dog. So, I started mixing them together. The pickle juice preserved the onions and I could spoon them both out at once. **Well, one day I had some purple onions** … I wonder how that happened? The brine made chopped white onions turn purple? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/31 "2010-08-04T21:55:30Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > > [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > > > I like diced onions and dill relish on my hot dogs, but it’s a pain in the ass to chop onions everytime I prepare a hot dog. So, I started mixing them together. The pickle juice preserved the onions and I could spoon them both out at once. **Well, one day I had some purple onions** … > > I wonder how that happened? The brine made chopped white onions turn purple? No, the brine made chopped purple (or “red”) onions continue to be purple. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/32 "2010-08-04T21:59:18Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Now I have some 600 grams of onion relish that I know damned well is quite delicious, but I have trouble eating it because the stuff is a kind of pinkish purple. I guess you might have trouble eating Yucatecan [pickled onions](http://www.dinnercraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/pickled_onions.jpg), which are a traditional topping for cochinita pibil (the iconic dish of the Yucatan.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/33 "2010-08-04T22:06:50Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > There’s some hot dog relish out there that’s dyed electric Kelly green – I ate it at a small hot-dog-specializing diner in the Chicago suburbs circa 2000. That relish’s color makes it rather unappealing. That’s Vienna Beef’s [Chicago-style relish](http://www.viennabeef.com/assets/items/70002.jpg). And [here it is](http://fastfood.ocregister.com/files/2009/05/viennahotdog_web.jpg) on some bastard child of a hot dog. Vienna Beef wants you to believe this relish is part of a genuine Chicago hot dog, but it’s just Vienna Beef marketing. Even at places which do the full to-spec “Chicago-style” hot dog (which isn’t even necessarily the predominant form of hot dog in Chicago), they often (usually) substitute normal relish for the neon-green crap. ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/34 "2010-08-04T22:08:36Z")
Purple ketchup might also be more disgusting to you because it’s “close enough” to normal that it can seem like regular ketchup that has something wrong with it. If it’s bright green or blue, your brain probably sees that as a novelty that it interprets as something other than ketchup. Whereas purple is close enough to the dark dried-up ketchup that collects around the cap that rather than thinking, “hey, this is something new!” you think “Hey, this is ketchup, but there’s something not right with it.” It’s probably like if you saw a pair of light tan socks and thought they looked dirty/dingy/old because you’re more used to seeing bright white. But if you see dark brown socks, you don’t think think they look “dirty” because you’re not comparing them to white socks in your head. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/35 "2010-08-04T22:15:17Z")
> [@TerpBE](#): > > Purple ketchup might also be more disgusting to you because it’s “close enough” to normal that it can seem like regular ketchup that has something wrong with it. If it’s bright green or blue, your brain probably sees that as a novelty that it interprets as something other than ketchup. Whereas purple is close enough to the dark dried-up ketchup that collects around the cap that rather than thinking, “hey, this is something new!” you think “Hey, this is ketchup, but there’s something not right with it.” > > It’s probably like if you saw a pair of light tan socks and thought they looked dirty/dingy/old because you’re more used to seeing bright white. But if you see dark brown socks, you don’t think think they look “dirty” because you’re not comparing them to white socks in your head. Good point. Marketing FAIL: Uncanny Valley salad dressing. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/36 "2010-08-05T01:56:05Z")
> [@TerpBE](#): > > Purple ketchup might also be more disgusting to you because it’s “close enough” to normal that it can seem like regular ketchup that has something wrong with it. I don’t think that’s it. The [blue stuff](http://images.usatoday.com/money/_photos/2003/04-08-blue-ketchup.jpg) is pretty disgusting too. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/37 "2010-08-05T02:09:14Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Bootleg margarine … what a concept. One imagines oleo-runners in souped-up Hudsons with secret compartments of yellow dyed spread under their floorboards evading the dairy-board police … Go ahead and laugh. Growing up in Wisconsin we regularly crossed the state line into Illinois to buy oleo margarine since it could not be sold in the Dairy State. > [@](#): > > Wisconsin became the last state to repeal restrictions on margarine. (1967) [http://www.karlloren.com/Diabetes/p46.htm](http://www.karlloren.com/Diabetes/p46.htm) Wisconsin law still restricts its use and access: > [@](#): > > 97.18(4) > **(4)** The serving of colored oleomargarine or margarine at a public eating place as a substitute for table butter is prohibited unless it is ordered by the customer. [http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&d=stats&jd=ch.%2097](http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&d=stats&jd=ch.%2097) ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/38 "2010-08-05T02:13:31Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I call my second daughter a “red-ivore”. If it’s red, she’ll eat it. That’s mostly fruit (apples, watermelons, cherries, strawberries) but also tomatoes, capsicums, carrots (close enough) and cocktail frankfurts. I do wonder if there is some evolutionary psychology at work there because a lot of foods do use red as a signal “I’m ready to eat” Yep, it’s a well known fact that red triggers hunger and cravings, particularly in people who need Vitamin A. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/39 "2010-08-05T04:24:46Z")
Another form of Pavlovian conditioning, I think? Synaptic expectations and well worn neural nets upset by contrast. The buddha said something about it, something about bright colors and spicy, strong, flavors. If you have zen tongue and nostrils and eyes to see you do not expect the id’s demands… you can live outside of your own egoistic sensual demands… ---
**Author:** ![alindallas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@alindallas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alindallas)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095/40 "2010-08-05T07:41:35Z")
Presentation is a very important factor in food preparation. Food coloring, fruit and vegetable waxes, etc. are rampant in our markets because they make food appear more delicious. Flip side: I would NOT buy blue meat or purple noodle soup. Black beer … hmmm. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-purple-ketchup-disgusting/549095.md?page=3)