Ketchup Packets in Short Supply, Due to COVID-19

   To eliminate points of contact that are touched by many people in restaurants, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested that restaurants replace the ketchup bottles, salt and pepper shakers, and other condiments and spices that are typically kept on their tables, with single-serving packets. 

   In response, many restaurants have provided single-serving packets of ketchup for diners who eat in, as well as for those who take out.

    As a result, Heinz, which has the highest market share of ketchup, has struggled to meet the country’s demand, not only for packets of ketchup, but also for ketchup bottles, as more families have eaten at home in the last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    “To catch up with the ketchup shortage, Heinz plans to open new manufacturing lines, beginning with two in April, with the aim of increasing production by 25% and bringing the total of ketchup packets produced per year to 12 billion,” Newsweek reported.

   In the meantime, restaurants are scrambling to find alternative brands of ketchup.

   Since the start of the COVID pandemic, consumers have shortages of other goods, such as toilet paper, disinfecting and cleaning products, certain cereals, and pet foods.