Some brand names are so well known they are used interchangeably to describe the product they sell - think Hoover, Fairy liquid and Biro. And while no-one says ‘pass the Heinz, please’, they’re undoubtedly the first name that springs to mind when it comes to tomato ketchup.
Produced by the H.J Heinz Company, the red sauce is king of the condiment cupboard, with my parents joking I’d have it on the side of anything. It’s certainly a trusted household brand, and the perfect accompaniment to a bacon sarnie or a hot dog at the family barbecue.
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The ever-reliable Heinz is made with tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, onion powder, spice and natural flavour.
But, it’s a staple sauce that, considering how quickly a family can get through a bottle - particularly if you have kids - is on the pricey side, costing £2.30 for 460g in Sainsbury’s.
So, like almost everyone else in the country, I’ve been looking at where I can save a few bob on my weekly shop, and have been on the hunt for a supermarket own-brand ketchup that lives up to the big name brands.
Here’s what I found:
Heinz
As I mentioned earlier, a medium sized bottle of Heinz will set you bag more than £2. Of course, you could opt for a larger bottle and save a couple of pence in the long run, but then you run the risk of taking up valuable cupboard space.
The condiment offers a sweet but balanced flavour - one we all know and love - with a slight acidity from the vinegar. It offers a smooth and consistent texture, and it’s easy to see why it sits in so many UK cupboards.
Price
In terms of price, all of the supermarket own brand ketchups from Sainsbury's Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and M&S all came in under £1. Already, just by switching to the tomato sauce from your regular weekly shop spot, you’ll be saving more than a quid on your condiment.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t M&S with the most expensive sauce, but Morrisons, who’s bottle cost 80p. M&S did come in second at 75p, with Tesco coming in closely behind at 65p.
Aldi was next with a 62p bottle, but it was Sainsbury’s and Asda both offered the cheapest bottles for 60p.
Size
When pulling in the purse strings, you want to get more bang for your buck. All of these tomato ketchups vary in size, with the smallest bottle coming from Morrisons, who also had the highest price. Their bottle was only 450g, while the cheapest bottle at Sainsbury’s was 460g.
Marks and Spencer’s offered 495g, and Asda’s bottle weighed in at 550g, with Tesco 5g more at 555g.
Aldi sold the largest bottle at 650g, making it the most for your money, followed by Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, M&S and Morrisons, in that order.
Appearance, taste and texture
Heinz offered a medium consistency sauce with a vibrant red colour and balanced flavour - but could any of the supermarkets live up to it?
Morrisons’ sauce looked very similar in terms of colour and texture, but Asda’s sauce was on the runnier side. Marks and Spencer’s tomato ketchup was much thicker and deeper in colour, while Sainsbury’s had that more classic consistency. Both Tesco and Aldi’s were quite watery, but the most important test was how well they would taste.
Most of the tomato ketchups all tasted fairly similar, very sweet, zingy with a hint of vinegar. I did find Aldi’s to be too acidic, Asda’s texture was off for me and it lacked any real flavour, and Tesco’s tasted on the artificial side.
There was one that really outshone the rest though, and that was Marks and Spencer with their sweet and tangy Tommy K. It tasted really rich, and complemented food rather than masked the taste of it. It’s edges on the side of a relish, and feels like a restaurant style quality sauce.
Winner
For me Marks and Spencer blew even Heinz out of the water. At 75p it was still cheaper than the big name brand, and offered good value for the size of the bottle. It tasted amazing and I’ll definitely be ditching Heinz in favour of this tangy tomato ketchup.
