At the beginning of the pandemic we were scrambling to find masks, hand soap, sanitizer and of course toilet paper. Yeast was hard to find, because so many people were baking, and there was a shortage of shelf stable food like beans and pasta. While we have new shelves full of disinfectant and masks, our new lifestyle is causing us to run out of other products. There’s now a shortage of ketchup, specifically ketchup packets, due to the fact that people have been ordering more takeout. While it sounds funny it’s a real issue for restaurant owners. This is mostly affecting Heinz, as that’s the main ketchup brand in the US.
“They are really sweating over it. I mean, it’s costing a lot,” says Heather Haddon, a restaurant reporter for The Wall Street Journal. “It’s, you know, a service issue. So for these restaurant owners, it’s not a laughing matter.”
Initially, ketchup sales were booming. Retail ketchup sales were 15% higher last year than in 2019. But, with restaurants reopening, the popular condiment is running out fast.
“Everyone was sheltering at home, and manufacturers really prioritized grocery customers. So everyone was, you know, eating their burgers and fries at home,” Haddon tells NPR’s All Things Considered.
A big part of the problem is the need for single-use, individual ketchup packets for takeout and delivery, as opposed to big glass bottles that sit on top of restaurant tables.
“The manufacturers have to shift production back, and that is not something that can happen quickly or easily,” she adds.
Haddon says prices for packets rose by 13%, which has caused restaurants owners to divvy up ketchup into a single-serving containers themselves.
Haddon says “some general managers were having to, you know, go out to Costco or other wholesalers and just pull bottles off the shelf.”
One of the main challenges, she tells NPR, is finding alternatives for the most loyal of Heinz fans.
“Heinz really is the favorite, so they have nearly 70% of the U.S. retail market share for ketchup,” she says. “People do really love it and are pretty loyal to it.”
I’m a Heinz user but I’ll take Hunts in a pinch. A restaurant owner interviewed by CNN said that it’s been so hard to get ketchup packets that he’ll stockpile packets from Wendy’s or McDonalds. That guy must be going inside or asking for ketchup with his order. While I prefer to eat my fries with ketchup, I don’t bother using the tiny packets they give out with fast food. They’re a pain to squeeze, they can be messy and you never get enough anyway. Plus they don’t even give them out unless you ask. Those Heinz dip and squeeze ketchup packets that look like little bottles are the bomb though. They have those out at Sheetz (a gas station and convenience store with fast food) and I love them. I also like the little plastic containers with the tops that they have at places like Ruby Tuesday.
It sounds like Heinz is going to fix this soon, but does anyone use those little ketchup packets? I would use one or two on a burger (back when I used to eat burgers), but it’s really frustrating to use them with fries and I usually just go without. Most fast food fries are good enough to stand on their own. Also, Wendy’s has the best fries. Fight me.
Update: thanks to everyone pointing out that single use ketchup packets are wasteful and that they shouldn’t be used at home when you’re getting delivery or bringing takeout home.
Photos via Heinz Instagram and credit: Calen Oquendo on Pexels
Single serving packets are very bad for the environment. All of this food packaging for takeout is a problem. We need to do better.
Agree. They should use this as an opportunity to come up with better alternatives.
Raises hand. I save them and I send it in my son’s lunchbox when he is having hotdogs for lunch.
I was just thinking that it’s weird they give you so many without asking whether you want any at all at most places (and then half the time, you don’t get what you actually asked for, like BBQ or mayo). I also feel bad when they give (without asking) little cups that someone who works there had to fill up, because I do not eat ketchup and just toss them.
wendy’s fries are good! I also really like chick fil a’s fries (but not really their chicken, nor their crazy drive-thru lines)
Take out restaurants in my area are getting pretty good at asking specifically what you want for extras along with your food so their isn’t so much waste. I declined chop sticks the other day, thinking I had plenty in my junk drawer. Turned out I didn’t have any and for some reason, the sushi didn’t “taste” the same.
Don’t most people have ketchup bottles at home that they can use? If you find yourself always needing more ketchup and you’re delivering to your house, keep backup supplies on hand.
i had stopped using all ketchup because over the years it tasted wrong. Someone introduced me to hienz organic ketchup and i will bring it with me to a restaurant….always got a bottle at home!! take care
*not opposed to bringing my own Litehouse salad dress either
If I am really excited about a breakfast place I smuggle in my own real maple syrup!
I wouldn’t know there’s a shortage based on all the packets I was given this weekend without even asking for it! I don’t even like ketchup, or any sweet sauce. Don’t tell anybody, but if you see me using ketchup, it’s because I don’t like whatever I’ve been served and I’m trying to choke it down anyway just to be polite.
I use ranch for that lol
When we’ve been eating at restaurants, they give us ketchup packages there – they no longer have the ketchup bottles on each table. So I imagine that’s part of the issue as well – not just takeout but how ketchup is consumed at restaurants has changed as well.
I only really use ketchup on hamburgers and hot dogs and I dont order those in restaurants or for takeout, lol.
If people are ordering food to have at home then just have a bottle at home?
This is a sustainability issue and all the extras should be on demand, not just added to your order regardless.
I hate when they put them in your bag, on top of your fries! Like, gross. Don’t put the dirty ketchup packet on my food in a pandemic.
This happened to me yesterday at McDonald’s and I’m like, “ew….”
I always click don’t send cutlery (you know those awful bagged plastic knives, forks and spoons (or sporks) with flimsy napkins and tiny salt and pepper packets? I hate those things. And if they give me space, I ask to NOT send condiments. But we still end up with too many ketchup, mustard, mayo, soy sauce, sweet and sour, jellies, ranch, buffalo, honey mustard, salsa verde, red sauce, blue cheese, etc. I have a designated container for them, and I use them when cooking. They’re wasteful any way you slice it, but I can’t bring myself to simply toss them.
Same. I’ve just gotten to where I pack everything for camping. I prefer not to use single use for camping, but it just keeps piling up and at least it’s getting used. I will say that last time I had ketchup packets at our site they were a big hit to the under-10 crowd.
I click that too and get sent them anyway a lot of the times. I did discover recently that one of the shelters near me can use them, so might be worth seeing if a place near you will take your stash!
They always, always send it anyway. And half the time you click leave it on the porch and they still insist on knocking and handing it to you.
I generally avoid ketchup. I am currently hooked on a tomato jam recipe that I found a few years ago. It is a sweet hot delightful sauce that I use instead of ketchup. I’m hooked.
I stopped using ketchup a few years ago. I’m currently hooked on a tomato jam recipe that I found a few years ago. It is a labor intensive, sweet hot gooey wonder that I’m so hooked on.
Sounds yummy!
Last year I bought one of those Heinz 57 collections at Costco. You know the condiments for an army pack of two huge ketchups, one huge mustard and a relish? Bought it as a lark and then it had the last laugh when I got it home and I couldn’t fit it into the cabinet. I have noticed at the drive thru windows they are now asking if you want ketchup rather than assuming that you do if you happen to buy fries. I do have a few packets of it pre-virus in my kitchen cabinets hanging out. Interesting that packet condiments are now the thing that is in short supply, never would have thunk it.
They’re welcome to come to my place, I have a little condiment packet drawer in my fridge and half it it is ketchup. Fast food places throw in fistfuls of them even when you don’t ask and no one in my house likes ketchup, but we also don’t like throwing stuff away.
I don’t like ketchup, except for Hela curry ketchup and habanero ketchup from Baker’s(so Cali fast food chain) but I LOVE Sheetz and wish we had them lol
Restaurants that have a delivery service in Italy usually make you pay for single-use sauces unless they have expensive food. So usually people don’t even bother buying them from the restaurants and just use what they have at home, which is better as single-use packaging is so wasteful.
I think charging is a great idea to cut down on waste, like some grocery stores are now doing with plastic bags.
I agree with those above who stated the packets are wasteful. I don’t normally use them but was at the ballpark yesterday and they had no ketchup packets for hot dogs, only mustard (I use both). They used to have the huge pumps but those are out with COVID.
Sustainability is a huge issue right now in the food industry (and by extension, the meetings and event space). To be safe, everything is individually packaged, which is great from a cleanliness perspective. But man, it’s creating SO much waste. There are some companies that make biodegradable food packaging, but it’s not what most restaurants are using, unfortunately.
My grandmother spent the last few years of her life rehabbing from injuries from a bad fall (in my house, UGH) and one of her favorite “meals” she invented was tomato soup using ketchup packets, sugar packets and hot water. I would visit her almost every Saturday to play cards and offered to bring her tomato soup but she had nowhere to store it and claimed she genuinely liked her concoction.
So for me, ketchup packets will always be associated with her. But yeah, not sure the nursing home should have been using them, so very wasteful.
I went out to a restaurant (on a patio socially distanced etc etc) and this place normally has the ketchup bottles but instead had the little packets. I guess because they didn’t want to wipe down the bottles after every guest? Very wasteful and sad
Sheetz is bomb.
I never use the ketchup packets, so if they ask me, I say no thank you. I like my fries crispy and salted alone. And if I’m at home with my take out, which is always the case these days, I have my own bottle of Heinz that I use should I want to, but usually I don’t. They’re nice enough to put ketchup on my Beyond Burger at Carls Jr, so I’m good.