Is Heinz Ketchup one of your favorite condiments? Do you rely on it to jazz up burgers, hot
dogs and fries? This tomato sauce has the power to pump up flavor fast. Heinz ketchup
is a tomato-based condiment with a long history and a great reputation. This iconic ketchup
reigns supreme over all other brands so it's time to discover the top 10 untold truths
about Heinz ketchup.
What The 57 On The Bottle Really Means
In 2016, the Heinz company celebrated its 150th birthday. This was a big milestone for
the company, which is known for printing the words, "57 varieties" on all of its ketchup
bottles. Most people assume that "57 varieties" means that Heinz produces 57 products. The
truth is that the company offers more than five thousand products. That's a lot of Heinz
products, isn't it? According to Heinz company lore, the company's founder, Henry Heinz,
took a ride on a Big Apple train in 1896 and spied a sign that advertised 21 types of footwear.
He felt that the advertising angle on the sign was a smart one and adopted his own version
for his ketchup packaging. Even at that time, his company was producing more than 57 products.
Over 60 products were being made at that point. But Henry Heinz had a lucky number and he
used it on his products. The number, 57, did seem to bring him big-time luck, since his
company is still going strong, over 150 years later.
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1000 Bottles of Heinz Ketchup Are Sold Every Minute
Heinz is the gold standard for ketchup and one thousand bottles of the stuff are sold
every sixty seconds. This product is flying off store shelves, and lots of restaurants
use it, too. People are accustomed to the taste of Heinz ketchup and most don't want
to see other ketchup brands on restaurant tables. They prefer to keep genuine Heinz
ketchup in their home kitchens, too. Heinz ketchup is what the people want, and lots
of gourmet eateries offer it to their customers, just like diners and fast-food joints do.
You'll find Heinz ketchup at some very upscale restaurants in New York City, including Gramercy
Tavern and the posh eatery, Daniel, which offers tasting menus with seven courses for
over two hundred bucks. Many respected chefs and restaurant owners understand that people
are deeply connected to Heinz ketchup, no matter how refined their tastes are. When
most restaurant customers think of ketchup, they think of Heinz, and they don't really
want to experiment with other ketchup brands. The truth is that lots of chefs don't want
to use other brands of ketchup, either. They like Heinz as much as their customers do.
Fancy places will often pay extra to display the ketchup in glass bottles. They know that
people love seeing their favorite ketchup presented in its most classic packaging.
Ed Sheeran Has a Tattoo of a Heinz Ketchup Label
You have to be heavy into Heinz ketchup to get a tattoo of a Heinz label, and Ed Sheeran
is heavy into Heinz ketchup. Ed is a gifted singer-songwriter who is committed to his
popular condiment. He's got tons of tattoos, including a lion on his chest and a teddy
bear. His Heinz ketchup label tattoo is on his upper arm. It's the focal point of a full
sleeve of ink. In June of 2018, reports circulated that Heinz Australia got wind of Sheeran's
tattoo and wanted to put his face on their Heinz ketchup bottles. That sounds like a
pretty good marketing gambit. Ed once remarked that he'd make ketchup mandatory at restaurants
that sell chips (or French Fries) if he became the UK prime minister. Ed is very famous,
with an entourage, and he makes sure that one of his underlings has a bottle of the
red stuff on hand at all times. Ed gets frustrated when he ends up at eateries that don't offer
his iconic ketchup brand. Ed Sheeran couldn't possibly be more into his fave ketchup. This
is Ed's comfort food or comfort condiment. He doesn't leave home without it.
Some Counterfeit Heinz Ketchup Bottles Exploded
If you want authentic taste, as well as personal safety, stay away from bottles of counterfeit
Heinz. There was an incident whereby fake bottles of Simply Heinz ketchup exploded and
it wasn't pretty. In 2012, in a Dover, New Jersey warehouse, plenty of counterfeit ketchup
was stored in crates. It was real Heinz ketchup, which became counterfeit when it was repackaged.
The goal of repackaging the ketchup was to fool the buying public and turn a profit.
Basically, cheaper, original formula ketchup was repackaged as a higher-end, premium ketchup,
Simply Heinz, which is made with sugar, rather than high-fructose corn syrup. The bungling
criminals who were running this ketchup scam operation didn't store the bottles at the
right temperature, like the skilled team at Heinz would. This is why acid from the vinegar
and tomatoes in the ketchup, as well as sugars, started to ferment. It was just too hot in
the seven thousand square foot warehouse and this triggered the fermentation process. The
bottles started blowing up and the other tenants of the warehouse soon took note of the mess.
Heinz employees and city officials got involved.
The Heinz Ketchup Flavor Profile Is Perfectly Balanced
Heinz ketchup gets a lot of respect from gourmets, including renowned chefs, due to its impressive
flavor profile. Obviously, it's a huge hit with regular folks, too. This brand of ketchup
features iconic taste that has so much balance. It's believed that the very first batch of
Heinz ketchup was inspired by a recipe from China. It was a thick sauce, like ketchup.
Henry Heinz put his own unique spin on things by making sure to use only super juicy, premium
tomatoes. However, the secret behind the success of this ketchup lies in our very own taste
buds. According to one chemical expert, human beings are able to detect five types of tastes.
They are bitter, salty, sweet, sour and umami. Umami is a Japanese word for yummy or delicious.
Umami taste is kind of hard to describe. It's a taste that doesn't fit into the other categories.
It's a savory taste, and cooked meats and broths tend to have umami taste. Ketchup experts
believe that Heinz ketchup has impressive umami taste, too. Heinz ketchup also hits
the other four types of tastes. It's salty, thanks to its salt. It's sweet, thanks to
its sugar. It's sour, thanks to its vinegar and it's bitter, thanks to its tomatoes. It's
got it all in terms of giving people's palates all five taste sensations, including umami.
McDonald's Stopped Offering Heinz Ketchup to Customers
For decades, McDonald's customers were able to access genuine Heinz ketchup along with
their burgers and fries, but not anymore. In 2013, McDonald's ended its long association
with the Heinz brand and started using other ketchup instead. The change was initiated
when Heinz hired Bernardo Hees as the new CEO. He was formerly the CEO of Burger King
Worldwide so you can see why that left a sour taste in the mouths of McDonald's Management.
In Fact, Hees is STILL a partner with 3G Capital, a Brazilian investment firm that controls
Burger King. Now, McDonald's offers its own private-label ketchup brand known as McDonald's
Fancy Ketchup. For forty years, at McDonald's burger joints, it was all about the Heinz,
as well as Big Macs and golden, salty French Fries. Customers seemed to be ok with the
change. It got some press but then faded out in the media. Probably because Heinz was already
out of the picture in most of the US market with the exception of Minneapolis and Pittsburgh.
Where Heinz REALLY got hurt was the overseas market. Now that McDonald's fully controls
production and distribution of its ketchup, it's easy for the company to ensure that it's
the same ketchup in every single McDonald's location worldwide. Was corporate pettiness
the whole reason for the change? Yes. The answer is yes.
The H. J. Heinz Company Has Been Around Since 1869
Heinz is a company that's been around for ages. The Heinz Company was formed in 1869.
It opened its doors as a food processing firm and its headquarters were in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The founder of the company was Henry John Heinz. These days, the company produces over
five thousand food products. It has factories on six different continents and its products
are marketed in over two hundred territories and countries. Right now, two hundred of the
brand's products are classified as number one or number two products globally. In terms
of ketchup, Heinz is number one in America. Heinz ketchup grabs over half all ketchup
market share in the USA. In 2013, Heinz was snapped up by two companies. They are
3G Capital in Brazil and Berkshire Hathaway. After this corporate acquisition, the Kraft
Heinz Company became the 5th biggest food firm on the planet. In 2015, Berkshire Hathaway
acquired majority ownership of Heinz. At the moment, Berkshire Hathaway owns a 52.5 percent
stake in Heinz. Berkshire Hathaway is an investment guru, Warren Buffet's, company.
The Company Began By Selling Horseradish
Heinz ketchup is the cornerstone of the Heinz company product line, but it wasn't the first
product that came from Heinz. The first product was horseradish sauce. By the time he was
nine years old, young Henry Heinz, who had always helped his mom in the garden, started
making his own horseradish sauce. He would grind up the ingredients himself and then
sell the concoction to people who lived near his home. His horseradish sauce was clearly
awesome because he had trouble meeting demand. By the time that he was twelve, he was able
to afford a horse and wagon, which he used to get more of his horseradish sauce to more
people. By his mid-teens, he was delivering his horseradish sauce to Pittsburgh a few
times a week. His trips to the big city were successful outings. By his mid-twenties, he
was ready to form his first firm with a buddy. It was called Heinz Noble and Company. Unfortunately,
the company couldn't stay afloat. It went under a few years after it opened. Henry Heinz
was ready to try again. He started F & J Heinz Co. and began marketing ketchup to consumers.
In the new company, his cousin was his business partner, but Henry bought him out later on.
The Tapping Trick Gets Ketchup Out Of The Bottle Fast
To get Heinz ketchup out of a glass bottle, just tap the bottleneck. You don't need to
use too much force. This simple trick should get the thick ketchup flowing again. These
days, lots of people are buying Heinz ketchup in plastic bottles that are easy to squeeze.
However, there are still glass bottles of Heinz ketchup out there. According to in-the-know
ketchup fans, tapping the bottle right where the number 57 is displayed on the bottleneck
is the secret of success. One firm tap should be enough to solve the problem and make it
easy for you to add ketchup to a recipe or put a blob on your plate, next to some tasty
French Fries. Heinz ketchup in glass bottles looks amazing. These bottles are a part of
Americana. However, the glass bottles are a little harder to get ketchup out of sometimes,
unless you know the tapping trick. Now that you know, you won't need to waste time trying
to correct a ketchup clog. You'll be ready to get the situation handled in seconds. While
this trick won't work every single time, it's pretty reliable, so give it a try the next
time that you run into ketchup trouble.
Heinz Purchases 200 Million Tons Of Tomatoes Yearly
It takes a lot of tomatoes to make a single bottle of Heinz ketchup. This ketchup is all
about concentrated tomato flavor. Each year, the Heinz Company buys two hundred million
tons of tomatoes. That's so many tomatoes! The tomatoes have to be premium. Heinz has
always been committed to using the freshest, ripest and juiciest tomatoes. 650 million
bottles of Heinz ketchup are sold annually, and this is why the company needs a steady
stream of red and flavorful tomatoes. Most of the company's ketchup is produced in a
factory in Fremont, Ohio. There used to be another factory in Leamington, Ontario, Canada,
but Heinz shut that company down in 2014. The company tends to buy tomatoes from growers
who have farms close to their factories. This speeds up the pace of ketchup production. While
competitors have always tried to take away market share from Heinz, it remains the winner
in the ketchup wars. It's got the authenticity, roots, brand recognition and flavor profile
that customers are looking for. Heinz is an American brand that people trust, and Heinz
ketchup continues to be a strong seller. Maybe it always will be. It's hard to imagine another
ketchup brand unseating Heinz ketchup as number one, but stranger things have happened.
So while you’re waiting for that ketchup to slowly come out of the bottle, find out
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