Jim- StepUpForCharity.org on 8/8/2007 at 4:55 pm said:

Actually I have, though I agree with you that it’s not very common. Can’t really remember where I first came across it (overseas?) but I remember thinking that it was too bitter and ‘tomato-ey’ for ketchup. Read the ingredient panel & saw no sweetners.

Thank you for the info. I can see why you are so well repected around here.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL

Sam on 8/8/2007 at 2:07 pm said:

I know that’s the way it is supposed to be listed, it just seems kind of suspicious. Have you ever seen a ketchup that didn’t contain any sweetener (to cut the acicdity of the tomatoes) as this one seems to implie? I haven’t but then again I don’t use kethup very often, and when I do I usually don’t read the label

Actually I have, though I agree with you that it’s not very common. Can’t really remember where I first came across it (overseas?) but I remember thinking that it was too bitter and ‘tomato-ey’ for ketchup. Read the ingredient panel & saw no sweetners.

Jim- StepUpForCharity.org on 8/8/2007 at 1:32 pm said:

Thanks General :blush:

Actually Sam, if it is in the ketchup than it must be listed parenthetically as well. That’s while you’ll sometimes see some ingredients listed multiple times- because they are constituent ingredients. Just because it appears elsewhere on the list, it can’t be ‘lumped’ under later- another ‘out’ that allows there to be a whole lot more of it in there than you think. A ficticious example:

Ketchup (tomato paste, corn syrup, water), High fructose corn syrup, Soy sauce (water, salt, spices), corn syrup, Worcesteshire sauce (water natural flavorings, salt, anchovies, corn syrup), yada, yada, yada.

Take a look at some of the commercial BBQ’s and Steak Sauces & check them out- lots & LOTS of parenthetical elements in some of them!

I know that’s the way it is supposed to be listed, it just seems kind of suspicious. Have you ever seen a ketchup that didn’t contain any sweetener (to cut the acicdity of the tomatoes) as this one seems to implie? I haven’t but then again I don’t use kethup very often, and when I do I usually don’t read the label

Sam on 8/8/2007 at 11:52 am said:

Not sugar but HFCS could be the #1 ingredient. They listed ketchup as #1 and then only listed the ingredients of the ketchup as Tomato puree, (water, tomato paste) they then listed HFCS as a seperate ingredient. I suspect it is in the ketchup as well.

Thanks General :blush:

Actually Sam, if it is in the ketchup than it must be listed parenthetically as well. That’s while you’ll sometimes see some ingredients listed multiple times- because they are constituent ingredients. Just because it appears elsewhere on the list, it can’t be ‘lumped’ under later- another ‘out’ that allows there to be a whole lot more of it in there than you think. A ficticious example:

Ketchup (tomato paste, corn syrup, water), High fructose corn syrup, Soy sauce (water, salt, spices), corn syrup, Worcesteshire sauce (water natural flavorings, salt, anchovies, corn syrup), yada, yada, yada.

Take a look at some of the commercial BBQ’s and Steak Sauces & check them out- lots & LOTS of parenthetical elements in some of them!

Jim- StepUpForCharity.org on 8/8/2007 at 9:04 am said:

Ought to have more than a ’sweet note’ to it. Yikes, look at all that sugar! Here’s one of the “games” that the food regulations allow us manufacturers to pull: we’re allowed to break out the different kinds of sugar. High Fructose Corn Syrup (#2 ingredient), Corn Syrup (#4), Molasses (#9), and Brown sugar (#12) are all essentially ’sugar’. If we were not allowed to break them out (for whatever the rationale) then ’sugar’ would be the #1 ingredient in a LOT of foods that you wouldn’t ordinarily think of as having sugar as the main ingredient. Most ketchups fall into this category as do a lot of breakfast cereals.

This post is NOT intended to dog this product or the maker. It is simply taking an opportunity to enlighten the casual reader who might not have known some of the food code loopholes and who can now read a label with a bit more knowledge.

Not sugar but HFCS could be the #1 ingredient. They listed ketchup as #1 and then only listed the ingredients of the ketchup as Tomato puree, (water, tomato paste) they then listed HFCS as a seperate ingredient. I suspect it is in the ketchup as well.

Anthony on 8/8/2007 at 9:11 am said:

Hi Jim, thanks for your input. Readers should be aware of that.

I could have gone on a diatribe about the HFCS and other sugars in there but I decided to just focus on the taste.

I don’t have any particular gripe against HFCS- it’s a useful ingredient and fairly benign in moderation. I just don’t agree with the regs that allow “tomatoes” to be listed as the #1 ingredient in ketchup, when in most instances it’s “sugar”. I bet that comes as a surprise to some folks- that there’s more sugar in some brands of ketchup than tomatoes!

Most BBQ’s do indeed have a lot of sugar in them, mine also (brown & nothing else) so it wouldn’t be a surprise that they’d tend to the sweeter side. Some, however, are nearly ALL sugar (in it’s various forms) with only some flavor additives. CaJohn’s recipe surprised me when he asked me to make it (back in the day) because it had comparitively very little sugar- quite the exception to the rule.

I just like to see folks have the information they need to make informed decisions rather than ban or regulate certain materials. Put knowledge in the hands of the consumers and they’ll sort it out pretty quick It might ebb & flow a bit, but the market does eventually sort most things out.