This big bottle of spicy hot ketchup from Spain says it only lasts 1 month in the fridge after opening. Is the label lying?

  • If yes, then an asshole designed the label.
  • If no, then the ketchup is a crappy design because a family must be large and has to eat burgers, fries, and meatloaf every day to get through 560g.

Ketchup on the US market would be loaded with sugar and preservatives. But Europe and maybe the rest of the world is more inclined to have a higher proportion of pronounceable ingredients and fewer of them.

There is sriracha ketchup in the US which is shelf stable even after opening. Hot spicy foods are often that way, so apparently there is enough sriracha in that ketchup to keep it stable without refrigeration. Yet the cayanne pepper spiked ketchup from Spain is said to struggle to hold up even when refrigerated.

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    I hate to break it to you but American Heinz ketchup has essentially the same ingredients list, minus cayenne, and essentially the same nutrition breakdown, except it’s actually 23.5g sugar instead of 25g (!!!). Though heinz is 9 more calories per 100g serving, probably due to differences in how rounding is allowed in the EU vs USA. The main difference is that it uses high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup as a sweetener because these are far cheaper in the USA but if you have an issue with these there is also “simply Heinz” which swaps the corn syrup for cane sugar and has essentially identical nutrition breakdown.

    Simply Heinz ingredients: TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES, DISTILLED VINEGAR, CANE SUGAR, SALT, ONION POWDER, SPICE, NATURAL FLAVORING. Regular is the exact same except sub cane sugar for corn syrup and hfcs.

    Heinz is shelf stable essentially indefinitely, likely years. Once opened in the fridge it will last months. As for the “preservative” here it’s the vinegar. If your ketchup doesn’t last as long it’s because it don’t got that sweet tang (though it does got that sweet, a bit more actually likely to offset the probably extremely small amount of cayenne). I don’t know why they would cut back on vinegar as it’s very cheap and probably the cheapest thing in the ketchup after salt and maybe sugar. But the vinegar concentration would 100% dictate shelf life.

    Perhaps they could add some