Title: The Nibble: Ketchup
Headings: Both Tomato Ketchup & Non-Tomato Ketchup (Cranberry, Mushroom, Plum...Banana Ketchup, Anyone?)
Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Condiments
A Fresh Look At Ketchup
Both Tomato Ketchup & Non-Tomato Ketchup (Cranberry, Mushroom, Plum...Banana Ketchup, Anyone?)
You Say Tomato, I Say Banana: A Fresh Look At Ketchup

Content: Portuguese traders returned from Asia with new products and ideas that spread throughout Europe. According to Andrew Smith, author of Pure Ketchup: A History of America’s National Condiment there is a great etymological confusion over the origin of this condiment’s name. Suggestions have ranged from corruptions of the French term escaveche, meaning “food in sauce,” to a variation of the Malay (Indonesian) word kecap, to the claim by the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary that the origin is ke-tsiap (“the brine of pickled fish,” referring to fish sauce, a popular Asian condiment) from the Xiamen/Chinese language was the forefather. Each of these etymologies has its supporters and detractors, and, like much food history, the true past of our modern term is shrouded in the mists of time. Photo © J.L. Hennaux | Fotolia. All three words are used to describe the product today. But the proper spelling in the U.S. is ketchup. In 1981, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised its standards, using the spelling “ketchup” instead of “catsup.” At the time, two of the three largest producers in the U.S., Heinz and Hunt’s, spelled their condiment “ketchup.”