Title: The History of Ketchup
Headings: The History of Ketchup
The History of Ketchup
From China to England
The Addition of Tomato
The Ketchup We Know Today

Content: It is then boiled until thick, cooled, and bottled. The bottled ketchup will last for several years, due to the amount of salt, which also made the ketchup taste, you guessed it, very salty. Because tomatoes are part of the Solanaceae family, which consists of certain poisonous plants, many people steered clear of eating fresh tomatoes, but were willing to consume ketchup, since the red fruit was cooked and preserved with other ingredients. Thus, the popularity of bottled ketchup begins. The Ketchup We Know Today
It may surprise you to know that Heinz was not the first bottle of ketchup sold; that credit goes to a farmer named Jonas Yerkes, who was selling bottles of ketchup nationally by 1837. It wasn't until roughly 40 years later that the F. & J. Heinz Company began selling tomato ketchup, and by the end of the nineteenth century, it was the primary type of ketchup in the United States. Gradually, the descriptor of tomato in "tomato ketchup" was dropped from its name. Originally, unripe tomatoes were used, which required the addition of a preservative called sodium benzoate to prevent spoilage and loss of flavor. But in the early 1900s, the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of this additive, and Heinz began making their ketchup with ripe tomatoes, which contain more of the natural preservative pectin, and adding sugar and vinegar.