Restaurants cannot meet the demand for ketchup.
Prices for ketchup packets have risen by 13% since January 2020, according to data from Plate IQ, a restaurant industry technology platform, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. A shortage of America’s favorite spices is the latest to hit the food industry amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Ketchup is the latest food shortage hitting restaurants and fast food chains.
(Phasin Sudjai)
The days of shared ketchup bottles at tables are over, now replaced by individual packages at many restaurants across the country. Current health and safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recommend that restaurants ‘do not use or share reusable items such as menus, spices and any other food container’ to limit the spread of the virus. More specifically, the CDC proposes the use of a ‘single serving of spices’.
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Heinz, which has the most market share in the US’s most used ketchup brand, told Journal that it wants to increase its production by about 25%, by more than 12 billion parcels a year. The brand said it could not keep track of the orders for its tomato sauce packets. To combat this, restaurants have apparently scrambled to find alternatives to the spread of tomato sauce. Chains such as Texas Roadhouse and Long John Silvers were apparently in short supply, and some employees had to run to large box stores to buy other brands.
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With more people cooking at home during the pandemic, ketchup retail sales increased by 15% in 2020, compared to 2019, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor, according to the Journal.
Ketchup is the latest product that is experiencing supply chain issues during the pandemic. There was a shortage of flour from the big baking tree early in quarantine when many Americans tried to bake sourdough bread during the pandemic. Pepperoni also lacked more people ordering pizza during stay-at-home orders. And more people consuming alcohol and buying alcohol for home consumption has led to a worldwide shortage of aluminum cans.