Ketchup to be made here again… but
Kraft Heinz is set to start making ketchup here again, after a six-year absence – only after Quebec bribed them with $2 million. How long was it till someone wrote the headline L’affaire est ketchup?
Not only is Quebec making this huge US conglomerate a present of $2 million – the tomatoes it will use will be American ones.
Ephraim 11:10 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
It lost a significant market to French’s, which uses Canadian tomatoes. First at a US plant, but now at a Canadian plant. There are at least 3 brands of Canadian ketchup now, Primo, President’s Choice and French’s. But only two are Canadian companies. It’s not easy marking “product of Canada” anymore. It actually needs to be made here!
Blork 11:22 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
The report I read said that initially they will use US tomatoes because of existing supply contracts but once those contracts expire (no indication when that will be) they will switch to Canadian tomatoes.
I don’t know if I will switch back. French’s tastes just fine to me, and I generally prefer to root for the underdog. I’m also not a big fan of the whole prodigal son scenario that Heinz is playing.
OTOH, if you want to eat local… does a bottle of ketchup from Montreal have a significantly smaller ecological footprint than a bottle of ketchup from Ontario? (100-mile ketchup diet!) Given that I go through all of a bottle and a half of ketchup a year I doubt it makes any difference.
Kate 11:28 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
I think it’s more about what brand of ketchup chain restaurants will buy, no?
I never use the stuff. Now if Huy Fong started making sriracha sauce here…
CE 11:42 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
@Kate, it would depend on supply chains and how many hands it goes through before getting to you. It very well could work out that the bottle made in Montreal gets shipped to a warehouse in Ontario and then shipped back to Montreal and the one made in Ontario gets shipped to the same place then shipped to Montreal. It’s crazy how much stuff moves around before getting on a store shelf!
Su 12:18 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
They should be required to ditch the plastic squirt bottles before we let them in.
Kate 12:21 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Excellent point, Su. Quebec’s got to put its big talk about green plans to work, in every kind of detail.
Su 12:53 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
No doubt they are allready considering this sustainable exemplary move given that they are dedicated signatories to the U.N Global Compact. https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/participants/141100-The-Kraft-Heinz-Company
Michael Black 14:10 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
So we go back to glass bottles for ketchup? Heinz themselves used to have ads about it, waiting for the ketchup to come out.
Blork 14:27 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
True story: last March I went to buy French’s ketchup at Provigo. The 750ml bottle was $3.99. The 1-litre bottle was… $3.99. So of course I bought the larger bottle. A couple of weeks ago it was time to re-up again. I went over to the condiments aisle and the 750ml bottle was $3.99 and the 1-litre bottle was still $3.99. So it was not even a temporary pricing glitch. This time I bought the smaller bottle because I’m tired of that bottle of ketchup taking up so much room in the fridge and the difference adds up to about a buck-and-a-half a year so I don’t give AF about getting the better price.
Kevin 14:44 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
I hated the glass bottles because they were heavy and ineffective at their job. Their plastic bottles are the ne plus ultra.
Michael Black 15:12 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
I remember 2L glass soda bottles. Those could explode. There’s also the matter of transport, to the store but even bringing it home. Glass is heavy.
The trick is to buy a small bottle, then refill it from a large bottle.
Clément 17:16 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Canadian ketchup, made in Canada (Chicoutimi) with Canadian ingredients by a Canadian owned company: Canada Sauce. They make ketchup, relish and mustard.
They even have a refill service at my local zéro-déchet in-bulk store.
https://canadasauce.com/
Blork 18:09 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Nice! Although it occurs to me that for the small amount I use I could actually just make my own. I’m just not sure homemade ketchup keeps for 8 months in the fridge…
MarcG 18:22 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Traditional lacto-fermented ketchup would last a long time in the fridge.
Blork 18:39 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Regular tomato ketchup isn’t fermented. The pickled condiment often containing fruit that is known in Quebec as “ketchup maison” is, but that’s not what we’re talking about. (It’s like comparing vinaigrette to mayonnaise; they’re completely different things although some people might call them both “salad dressing.”)
Kate 18:49 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Clément, that Canada sauce looks great, especially as it’s “sans conservateurs”!
MarcG 19:08 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
@Blork I’m talking about the tomato ketchup you know and love before it became a commercial product. Although I can’t find a historical recipe where it’s lacto-fermented – perhaps it was the acidity from the tomatoes that preserved it, or as in the wikipedia entry, Brandy. 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup#Tomato_ketchup.
MarcG 19:09 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Actually, I made a mistake, the 2nd step in that recipe “let them rest for 3 days” is the fermentation period.
MarcG 19:25 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
Also I think you’d be hard pressed to find a “ketchup maison” for sale that didn’t use commercial vinegar instead of naturally produced lactic acid.
Blork 21:52 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
@MarcG, I have to admit that recipe for “Tomata Catsup” looks pretty interesting. But salty AF! A pound of salt for a gallon of “tomatas?” Yo, there goes my blood pressure!
Blork 21:59 on 2020-11-18 Permalink
…that said, I’m happy enough with commercial ketchup since the only things I use it for are (1) on Blork’s World Famous Roast Potatoes (usually with a dab of sriracha added) and (2) as a shortcut when making BBQ sauce.
Hmm. Checking my recipes I see I also use it in my reverse-engineered Taco del Rey chipotle sauce and Huli Huli chicken, but I don’t make either of those very often.
MarcG 10:22 on 2020-11-19 Permalink
Part of the purpose of the salt is to pull the water out of the tomatas, which you then remove (most modern recipes start with tomato paste instead of whole tomatoes), so I think the final product would probably be averagely salty but also impossible to measure if you are watching your sodium intake.