Heinz Ketchup's New Recipe has Less Salt

(AP)  Heinz has cooked up a new recipe for its iconic ketchup.

The Pittsburgh-based condiment maker has started making batches of ketchup using a recipe with less salt. The new version will hit store shelves this summer.

Company officials say the 15 percent cut in sodium is the first significant change of formula in nearly 40 years.

But fear not, ketchup connoisseurs. The new recipe has been thoroughly taste tested.

Company spokeswoman Jessica Jackson says tests were conducted in Pittsburgh and other cities across the country.

Jackson says there won't be a splashy graphic on the labels to announce the new recipe. Consumers will have to check the nutrition panel instead.

[mollydtt]

I actually wish there would be a splashy graphic to advertise the lower salt---I gravitate towards items with reduced salt, but I don't read all of the nutritional labels.
I'd like the label to show this on front.

[rwsmith29456]

I hope other food processors follow their lead. Everything that isn't fresh from the garden tastes like brine.

[erasmus111]

by rwsmith29456 May 16, 2010 3:02 PM EDT
I hope other food processors follow their lead. Everything that isn't fresh from the garden tastes like brine.


Yes, once you stop eating that stuff, and you eat only fresh foods, the other tastes awful. When I do go to a restaurant now, which isn't often, I do not enjoy the food.

[barbaram99]

I would welcome the lower salt things..I don't add more salt to to food...i think the lables should be different as I can't see the small print..I hardly go to MsDonalds as they will not have salt free fries..The body needs some salt..In America they price the low salt foods higher than the more salted ones..I have to buy things to heat..I can't cook and can't for health and safety reasons.

[darlenerhoads]

We buy the big container's of ketchup I hope they are still going to mark them "gluten free" for us celiac's it takes out all of the guess work one less label to read for the ingredients.

[darlenerhoads]

We buy the 7 lb 2 oz container's it's cheaper for us I hope they are still going to mark the packages "gluten free" for us celiac's it takes out the guess work.

[gruven13777]

Every processed food out there that comes in a bottle, packet, can, jar or package needs to have it's sodium level slashed in half or more.

You love salt?...then break out your own salt shaker, but don't make the rest of us eat it.

[tiredofeverything]

It better taste the same.
Hope Heinz remembers what happened when 'new coke' came out...

[a1sether]

A little less sodium is not going to change the taste of the best ketchup. Heinz ketchup is so much better than other ketchups it's not even close. I have been eating it for 70 years.

a1sether

[dnamj]

what about the high fructose corn syrup? That is way worse for most people than sodium.

[laurawhitetail]

eramus is mistaken...there is 190 mg of sodium in heinz ketchup per Tbs....still very low compared to other foods...i donot think this is enough to qualify a change in formula, but if so, if it changes the old reliable ketchup, i will move on to another....

[erasmus111]

by laurawhitetail May 14, 2010 4:16 PM EDT
eramus is mistaken...there is 190 mg of sodium in heinz ketchup per Tbs....


Erasmus isn't mistaken at all. My bottle of Heinz Ketchup says it has 140mg of sodium per 1 tablespoon. So obviously our ketchup, in Canada, is made with lesser sodium than yours.

And it isn't low considering that is for 1 tablespoon and people use a lot more than that. And that is on top of everything else that has high sodium content. It is in everything you eat. It all adds up.

And I take a dim view of you telling me that I am mistaken when I said that I had checked the bottle. Who the hell are you?