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  • 2016-02-18 (xsd:date)
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  • Israel Just Banned Heinz Ketchup (de)
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  • On 12 February 2016, the web site Health and Home Remedies published an article reporting that the country of Israel had declared Heinz brand ketchup unsafe due to its inclusion of genetically modified ingredients and banned it from sale in that country: The article was nearly identical to a 22 January 2016 post published by the blog Stay on the Health Path: Both posts cited the presence of genetically modified ingredients (GMOs) as a factor in Israel's purported ban of Heinz brand ketchup. However, Heinz Europe notes in their FAQ that the product contains no such ingredients: More to the point, the claim that Israel banned Heinz ketchup in early 2016 was false: the articles quoted above actually referenced a mid-2015 controversy about ketchup labeling in Israel which did not involve a ban of any type. According to an article from the Israeli news agency Haaretz, the country's health ministry had imposed a labeling restriction on Heinz that required the company's flagship product to be labeled as tomato seasoning rather than ketchup. That ruling stemmed from a January 2015 controversy in which rival ketchup producer Osem argued that the composition of Heinz's product shouldn't legally be allowed to bear the label ketchup because it didn't contain the required minimum amount of tomatoes. In response, Heinz accused Osem of attempting to maintain a monopoly on ketchup sales in Israel: A statement from a Heinz Europe spokesperson in response to the controversy asserted that their ketchup product was already labeled correctly: As of April 2016, Heinz ketchup (labeled as such) was still readily available on store shelves in Israel, so the product clearly has not either been banned or renamed: Heinz ketchup has not been banned in Israel, for its alleged inclusion of GMO-derived ingredients or any other reason. All that happened was that a rival brand claimed Heinz shouldn't be allowed to label their product as ketchup because of differing standards over required tomato content. (en)
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