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Red faces at veteran sauce-maker after cheap rivals pip 'nation's favourite' table product
It is the name synonymous with the nation's favourite sauce and one of the best-known brands in the world. But Heinz tomato ketchup has come near the bottom of a national consumer taste test, trounced by cheaper supermarket own brands.
In a blind tasting of 13 ketchups, carried out by the consumer group Which?, Heinz failed to make it into the top 10, finishing joint second from bottom, along with Aldi.
Overall, the top-scoring "best buy" was Sainsbury's own-brand tomato ketchup, which was singled out for its "rich tomato taste, with a nice thickness to the sauce". M&S and Tesco own-brand ketchups came joint second.
All three scored four out of five for appearance, aroma, taste and texture. But Heinz scored just two out of five for taste, with many tasters describing its flavour as "artificial" and '"synthetic", and claiming it had a "bitter" and "vinegary" taste.
Heinz cost almost twice as much as the top-scoring Sainsbury's product (£1.75 for a 460g bottle compared with 95p for a 485g bottle).
Heinz said in a statement: "Heinz tomato ketchup is the nation's favourite with around 80% share of the market. Consumers are not fooled by imitators – they know that no other ketchup will do."
