Aug 17, 2016

if it looks like a duck, if it sounds like a duck, it is ketchup

About a year ago Osem successfully got Heinz ketchup declared in Israel as "tomato dressing" rather than ketchup, due to some ancient regulation of how much tomato content must be in the mixture to legally use the word ketchup.

Heinz had to relabel all their bottles in Hebrew to say "metabel agvaniot" - tomato dressing - instead of saying ketchup, as the Heinz recipe for ketchup includes less than the mandated 10% tomato content.

Tomato Dressing no more! Heinz can now call their flagship product ketchup once again! #ketchuplivesmatter

Ministers Moshe Kachlon and Yaakov Litzman signed a new directive today canceling the requirement of 10% tomato content in ketchup to qualify for use of that name. The justification for the change is that the requirement was ancient and nowhere else is 10% required - not in Europe and not in the USA. Removing this requirement will help the competitive market, allow new companies to be imported and to be sold  with that name.
sources: Ynet and Globes

I wonder if Osem will drop the level of tomato content in their ketchup now that they no longer need to stick to the previously-required 10%, or if they will keep it and use it in their marketing in some way such as more tomato = better ketchup.

Thank you Israel, for declaring Heinz Ketchup as real ketchup.



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1 comment:

  1. Of course Heinz ketchup is more than 10% tomatoes. Just taste it and look at the ingredients.

    The 10% requirement was למינימום 10 מעלות בריקס (מדד למדידת כמות המוצק בתוך הנוזל) שמקורן בעגבניות. According to this article, "Israel...requires ketchup to contain at least 10% tomato solids. Osem says tomato concentrate must make up at least 35% of the product to reach that level."

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