So, today I got a bit curious about what’s actually in the Hunt’s ketchup I’ve had sitting in my fridge forever. You know how you just use stuff without really thinking about it? Well, I decided to actually check it out.
First thing I did was walk over to the refrigerator. Pulled out the bottle – it’s one of those upside-down plastic ones. Pretty standard stuff. Had to squint a bit, the print on labels seems to get smaller every year, or maybe it’s just my eyes.
Anyway, I turned it around to find that ingredients list. It’s usually tucked away somewhere near the nutrition facts. Found it. Okay, let’s see what we got here.
Reading the Label
The very first thing listed was tomato concentrate. Makes sense, right? It’s ketchup. It said it’s made from red ripe tomatoes, which sounds good.
Next up was high fructose corn syrup. Yeah, saw that one coming. Lots of ketchups use it. Right after that, it listed plain old corn syrup too. So, double dose of corn-based sweeteners.
Then came distilled vinegar. That gives it the tangy kick, I guess. Standard ingredient for ketchup.
After vinegar, just a few more things:
- Salt – Obviously.
- Less than 2% of: Spice, Onion Powder, Natural Flavors.
That “spice” and “natural flavors” part is always a bit mysterious, isn’t it? Could be anything, really. But mostly, it looked pretty straightforward.
So, yeah, that was my little investigation for the day. Basically tomatoes, sweeteners (lots of corn syrup), vinegar, salt, and some flavorings. Pretty much what I expected, honestly. No big surprises hidden in the bottle. Just your everyday ketchup ingredients.
