Should the ketchup bottle go in the fridge or not? As Americans prepare for Fourth of July gatherings, many will stock up on barbecue essentials.
But after the picnic is over and the ketchup bottle has been open, where should it be stored? Does it go on the cupboard shelf alongside maple syrup, honey, or soy sauce? Or should it be kept cold at all costs, like processed eggs, mayonnaise, and salad dressing?
The perennial discourse is so contentious and ubiquitous that Kraft Heinz has weighed in on how ketchup should be stored – more than once. Last week, the UK branch tweeted: “FYI: Ketchup. goes. in. the. Fridge!!!.”
In an accompanying Twitter poll, over 62% of respondents said they kept the condiment in their fridges, while 36.8% copped to keeping it in the cupboard.
But in 2017, the brand was more circumspect, telling the Today show, “Because of its natural acidity, Heinz Ketchup is shelf-stable. However, its stability after opening can be affected by storage conditions. We recommend that this product, like any processed food, be refrigerated after opening. Refrigeration will maintain the best product quality after opening.”
Hunt’s, on the other hand, told HuffPost the same year that the storage question was “truly a matter of choice”, while Muir Glen also encouraged refrigeration.
So, which is it? Though many in the comments on the recent tweet said they felt refrigerating ketchup keeps it fresh, others were queasy at the thought of the cold condiment hitting their warm food.
“Cold ketchup? Ewww no,” one user wrote. Another said that they placed their bottle “on the counter ready to be used at any moment”.
Food safety experts say that while ketchup is shelf-stable, it generally tastes better when kept cold. “I’m shocked there’s a controversy,” said Martin Bucknavage, a food safety specialist at Penn State University. “If you want to maximize the quality of your ketchup, you keep it in the fridge.”
Bucknavage said that while some restaurants leave room-temperature ketchup out on tables for guests to use, those bottles should go into the refrigerator at the end of the day. He also added that restaurants go through ketchup bottles quicker than most households do, so how they store it is less important.
“Once you open up ketchup, there is the potential for mold to get into the top, which is the biggest concern if the product is left out for an extended period of time,” Bucknavage said. “On a personal level, I store my ketchup in the fridge. I prefer my ketchup to be firm, not runny, so it doesn’t separate. When I squeeze the bottle and liquid comes out first, it gets on the bun and makes me mad.”
Dr Melvin N Kramer is the president of EHA Consulting Group, which offers food safety consulting services. He said that while it’s unlikely anyone would get sick after eating room-temperature ketchup, the condiment holds up better when kept cold.
“You’re not going to have pathogens grow in room-temperature ketchup, though some mold could grow there,” he said. “Mostly, people want to keep their ketchup cold because it’s about keeping the taste, flavor, and longevity of the product.”
Dr Kramer added that the longer someone keeps ketchup on the shelf, the more likely it is to lose nutritional value. But, to be fair, no one’s eating ketchup because it’s healthy.
“I don’t think many people look at ketchup as a source of nutritional quality for someone’s daily intake of food,” he said. “Except for maybe the school lunch program.” (In 1981, Ronald Reagan’s administration tried to list ketchup and pickle relish as vegetables.)
Dr Donald W Schaffner, an extension specialist in food science and distinguished professor at Rutgers University, agreed that people who leave their ketchup out were probably not risking serious illness.
“Condiments like ketchup are formulated with things like acid, salt, and added sugar, which all work as preservatives,” he said. “The reason a lot of food safety experts say to refrigerate ketchup is because they’re erring on the side of caution.”
But according to Schaffner, people at home do not need to be so careful. While it’s possible that microorganisms could get inside of a ketchup container and make someone sick, it’s a very low risk.
“I would bet that you wouldn’t get food poisoning from room-temperature ketchup unless you really tried to,” he said. “Maybe if you brought out a hamburger and drained the hamburger juice into the ketchup, that could get you sick. But the chance is low unless you do something very foolish.”
Ultimately, Schaffner said, the biggest risk that comes with keeping ketchup at room temperature is the chance that it does not taste as good as its colder counterparts. So the best way to store ketchup, he said, is “whatever way you want”.
