Heinz has cleared up the confusion regarding where you should keep your ketchup.
It’s a discussion that has prompted my roommates to scream, my mother to discreetly shift the bottle when she thinks I’m not looking, and me to experiment with different places each week to discover which makes the ketchup taste best.
Heinz has officially weighed in on the official proper spot to keep your tomato sauce, so homes will no longer be split.
If you store it in the fridge alongside your other condiments—mayonnaise, for example—ketchup has a tantalizing zing of tomato to complement your hot-from-the-fryer chips.
If you leave it in the fridge, it will become a lovely, room-temperature, juicy sauce that will merge with the heat of the steam coming from the burger when you smush a bun on top.
According to a Heinz Twitter survey, 53.6 percent of the 2,342 individuals who voted think ketchup should be kept in the fridge, while 46.4 percent feel red sauce should be stored in the cupboard.
But where should you keep your ketchup? It’s a topic that has almost led to food battles for years, and the only voice with any authority on the subject has to be Heinz.
Heinz, the American food manufacturing corporation, has had its say on Twitter, and eventually, as the lord of ketchup, what it says goes.
According to the packaging description on the bottles, we should refrigerate the ketchup after opening it and consume it within eight weeks, yet I certainly have a few bottles that have been lingering for a few months, if not years.
Over Heinz’s message, Twitter burst as swiftly as a bottle of ketchup after being put under pressure for too long.
Ketchup fans from all over the world have flooded in to share their comments, with some furious by Heinz’s move, vehemently defending their right to eat tepid tomato sauce.
“No, it doesn’t,” one user said. You focus on production, while I handle consumption.”
“Put it in the fridge or I dunno how to function,” Heinz answered.
“It has never, ever gone in my fridge or anyone else’s,” another user remarked.
“It does, and they do,” Heinz remarked. Closed the case (fridge).”
“So why is it on the shelves in supermarkets and shops then?” asks one last tweet.