Heinz GMO ketchup banned by Israel for containing too much HFCS, not enough tomatoes

Monday, February 08, 2016 by: Sarah Landers
Tags: Heinz, ketchup, labeling

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(NaturalNews) Heinz, the well-known family favorite ketchup brand, has been banned in Israel because it does not contain enough tomato solids. Israel's health ministry has said that it does not contain enough paste to be classed as ketchup.

The decision came after the biggest ketchup rival in Israel launched a campaign against Heinz, asking for the definition of ketchup to be changed. The world famous brand has been demoted to "tomato seasoning" – despite selling almost two million bottles around the world every single day.

The campaign

Back in January 2015, an Israeli company called Osem wrote an open letter to retailers, stating that they had tested Heinz independently and found that it only contained 21 percent tomato concentrate. They went on to claim that their brand contains 61 percent tomato concentrate, stating that "the incorrect indication of tomato concentrate in the products severely misleads the Israeli consumer public and is a violation of the provisions of the law to protect consumers."

This sparked a war between Osem and Diplomat, who distribute Heinz ketchup across Israel – and now the health ministry has also gotten involved. After their testing and investigation, they too have ruled that Heinz does not contain enough tomato solids, or paste, to deserve the label "ketchup."

So what is in Heinz ketchup?

We're starting to become much more aware that processed food such as Heinz ketchup is full of more than what we originally thought – including toxic chemicals. Organic options and home cooking are becoming more and more favored in U.S. households.

There are several reasons why you should read and fully understand the Heinz ketchup ingredient label. At a glance you'll probably notice that some of the ingredients are questionable, but once you look into it a little deeper you'll find things that are not only unhealthy, but also toxic and dangerous if consumed over long periods of time.

The full list of ingredients is as follows:

Tomato concentrate

Distilled vinegar

High fructose corn syrup

Corn syrup

Salt, spice, onion powder, natural flavoring

This label, as with other ingredient labels, is listed from most to least in terms of quantity of ingredients – meaning that it apparently has the largest quantity of tomato concentrate in comparison to other ingredients; although we know from what's happened in Israel, that this is only a mere 21 percent.

Heinz is trying to trick the consumer into believing there are more ingredients in the bottle than there actually are – with "high fructose corn syrup" and "corn syrup" actually being the exact same thing.

This is to imply that corn syrup is healthier than high fructose corn syrup, and also so that consumers believe that the majority ingredient is tomato concentrate. But if you combined the two corn syrups, they would be much higher on the list – in fact, they would probably come above tomato concentrate as the main ingredient in Heinz ketchup.

Corn syrup is extremely unhealthy, acting like sugar in the body when metabolized, and causing spikes in blood sugar levels that damage the liver over time, as well as cause obesity, heart disease, diabetes and so on.

The corn syrup used is also likely to be from GMO corn, so you're actually eating more GM food than you are tomatoes. Meanwhile, distilled vinegar, the second highest ingredient on the list, is also made from GMO corn. So this is actually a corn-based product with a dash of tomato in for good measure.

As if that isn't bad enough, the "salt, spice, onion powder and natural flavoring" thrown in at the end, are the type of cheap salt that causes high blood pressure, toxicity in the body and mineral imbalances – leading to health challenges if consumed too frequently.

Condiments may not have been top of your list of things worth preparing at home, but you may want to start doing so. It's not particularly difficult to whip up a ketchup at home – and yours will probably contain more tomato than corn!

Sources include:

1. DailyMail.co.uk

2. HealthyWildAndFree.com