STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did the Kraft Heinz Company announce clear ketchup using lab-grown tomatoes, as a post on Instagram claimed? No, that's not true: A representative for The Kraft Heinz Company confirmed to Lead Stories that "these claims are false." The background of the video of a person pulling the bottle from a store shelf clearly reveals the bottles on the shelf are all standard red ketchup. Lead Stories found no evidence that the company had either announced or sold such a product at the time of this publication. The original poster shared no evidence to support their claim that the product was genuine.
A version of the claim originated in a post shared on Instagram on July 20, 2024 (archived here) that included three images of a product labeled "TOMATO KETCHUP CLEAR." A text overlay read:
Lord, they're down here growing clear tomatoes in a lab, calling it ketchup 🤦🏽♀️"
Below is how the post appeared at the time of this publication:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken Sun July 21 10:03:00 2024 UTC)
A representative for The Kraft Heinz Company confirmed to Lead Stories in an email received on July 23, 2024, that "these claims are false."
Lead Stories found no evidence that the company had either announced such a product or was selling it at the time of this publication. Furthermore, the original poster shared no evidence to support their claim that the product was genuine.
Lead Stories searched through the verified social media accounts for Kraft Heinz on X (archived here), Instagram, and Facebook (archived here), as well as the company's press releases (archived here). As of July 22, 2024, no "tomato ketchup clear" product had been announced (archived here).
Similarly, a search on the company's website's product page (archived here) did not include a "tomato ketchup clear" product.
Through a reverse image search (archived here), Lead Stories found that a version of the images from the Instagram post had been shared online since at least November 2023. One iteration included a video posted to YouTube on November 16, 2023 (archived here) showing a person grabbing the "tomato ketchup clear" product from what looked like a grocery store aisle.
However, an analysis of the video in slow-motion showed that the "tomato ketchup clear" product was the only such clear ketchup product shown on the shelves -- surrounding it were bottles of standard red ketchup:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken Mon July 22 16:58:27 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories has debunked other food-related claims, including a video claiming to show genetically modified tomatoes and grain swimming in water.
Updates:
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2024-07-23T16:09:11Z 2024-07-23T16:09:11Z Adds comment from The Kraft Heinz Company.
