Heinz Ketchup Primary Ingredient Is Not Tomatoes But An Ingredient The Green Community Hates

When it comes to the war between conventional and all-natural foods, both sides often lob insults about the other’s products. For the former, they claim all-natural foods are unpredictable and unsustainable resulting in the hunger crisis the world is suffering today. For the latter however, they claim conventional foods are not even foods but science experiments being fed to the public. That is why conventional foods, especially the ones made with GMOs, are insultingly called “frankenfoods.” A prime example of the bickering both sides go through can be seen between Hellmann’s and Hamptom Creek over the latter’s naming of their mayonnaise (which may imply that their mayonnaise is real while others are fake).

Now another argument somewhat similar to the mayonnaise spat has been brought up for ketchup, specifically Heinz. Reportedly, Heinz ketchup isn’t really a ketchup because its primary ingredient is not tomatoes. Actually, it is an ingredient the green community actually hates.

The claim on Heinz ketchup was made in an exclusive by Healthy Wild And Free. Utilizing the ingredients list on a basic bottle of Heinz ketchup, it is claimed that the major ingredient used in it is not tomatoes, despite the ingredients list showing tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes as its first ingredient, thus making it the most used ingredient in the product as shown in the picture of the ingredients list below.

The argument presented by the exclusive is that corn syrup is technically the most used ingredient in Heinz ketchup. The reason why it isn’t on top of the list is because it was split into two separate ingredients despite being the same. As shown in the label, those two are high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. This is what irks a lot of people in the green community. First off, syrup is by definition a thick sweet liquid derived from a sugar-rich plant such as sugar cane, corn, and maple. Summarized, corn syrup is liquid sugar. As for the high fructose version, the only difference between that and the regular version is that high fructose corn syrup has enzymes added to it to make the product sweeter. That’s pretty much sugar on top of sugar.

This issue actually counteracts the food standard for what qualifies as ketchup, as reported by AltHealthWorks. In order for a ketchup to be recognized as ketchup, at least 41 percent of it must be tomato concentrate. According to test information provided by Osem, only 21 percent of Heinz ketchup is tomato concentrate, at least in Israel. Heinz retaliated, saying Osem has a monopoly on the ketchup market in Israel. But until they can refute the test information, Heinz will now be slapped with a label saying “tomato seasoning,” which makes a quote written by Haaretz a painful reality for the ketchup company.

“The brand Heinz may be synonymous with ketchup for most of the world, but no longer in Israel.”

[Featured Image via Scott Olson/Getty, Post Image via Healthy, Wild, and Free]