Ketchup

Sauce recipes are infinite, providing a fantastic playground for innovation and the adaptation of new formulations, either to meet or anticipate consumer expectations. Ketchup, for its part, is a sauce in a class of its own, whose origins date back to the 17th century, when sailors traveling in China discovered a preparation made from soya or fish juice preserved in salt, called Ké Tsiap. The recipe evolved over time in terms of added ingredients, and it wasn't until the late 18th century that it was introduced to Nova Scotia, gradually stabilizing with the addition of tomato. The creation of "ketchup" is attributed to a Philadelphia scientist, James Mease (in 1812), and it wasn't until 1876 that H.J. Heinz launched its commercialization.

However, ketchup is not the most important part of this family of tomato-based products, as there are also other derivatives of this fruit, in particular crushed, peeled, puréed, cooked or uncooked tomato sauces, juices and gazpacho. This fact sheet looks at the composition of ketchup, some economic data relating to this market, as well as the manufacturing process and nutritional aspects.