While many restaurants across the country are struggling to keep up with a shortage of tomato sauce, the problem is not that bad in the Bay.
As more restaurants took over in the course of the pandemic, shared tomato sauce bottles were quickly swapped in favor of individual packages, which are now in high demand and more difficult to find in some countries.
According to data from Plate IQ, a technology company that works with restaurants, prices for tomato sauce packets have risen by 13% since January 2020.
Heinz, a major ketchup manufacturer, plans to increase ketchup production by 25% to meet the growing demand for individual ketchup packages, reports KTVU.
The problem does not seem to be so widespread in the Bay Area, with Bi-Rite Foodservice distributors chairman Aaron Barulich confirming Heinz and other manufacturers have limited how much their customers can buy.
Barulich also noted that at some point in the year, Bi-Rite Foodservice distributors were unable to ship Heinz ketchup – and especially not the parcels due to supply issues at Heinz.
“I think it’s fair to say that our customers can get ketchup,” Barulich said. “But it may not be the brand they want all the time.”
Bay Area restaurants, however, seem uncomfortable by the news. “We do not have the problem here, thank God,” an employee of Red’s Java House told The Chronicle Wednesday. Workers at several locations at Mel’s Diner in San Francisco were also adamant that there was nothing to worry about when it came to the beloved spice.
Employees at several Bay Area locations in Target and Safeway also said that although they had heard of the shortage, their shelves had so far been full of stock and that there were no problems going on.
The nationwide ketchup shortage is just one example of the many supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic – from toilet paper to aluminum cans. During the summer, there was a huge shortage of coins in the Bay – especially for coin-operated laundries, banks and convenience stores.
Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @annievain