Viral: Is your ketchup safe? Video sparks fresh food safety concerns

There are very few dishes in the world that don't taste better with ketchup. From pizza and burgers to meatloaf and even eggs, people pair ketchup with the strangest of dishes as it makes everything taste delicious.But have you ever wondered how the sweet sauce that is produced on such a large scale and loved by all, is made? What are the real ingredients of store-bought ketchup and is it truly safe for consumption? A viral video seems to have the answer.A video going viral on X showed what ingredients are added to a ketchup to make it taste like a tomato sauce when in reality, it isn't one. In the video, the narrator described ketchup as a "chemical cocktail disguised as an innocent sauce."They explained that the sauce contained "refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid from GMO mould, sodium benzoate and artificial flavours." This ingredient list is designed to trick your brain into craving the concoction more.While the natural benefits of tomatoes get lost in the hours of chemical processing, what's left is a sugary syrup that creates an addiction. The narrator also claimed that one tablespoon of ketchup has "more sugar than a cookie" and more salt than a "serving of French fries."They ended the video with a suggestion to always check the ingredients of the things you come to love to consume.The video has garnered over 1.1M views and 222 comments with people agreeing to it and sharing that they check the label before buying or making the sauce at home.A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety stated that a higher amount of different heavy metals might be contributed by the addition of spices and other ingredients to industrially processed tomato ketchup, adding that the population that was exposed to the was in a level of concern interval.According to the USDA Nutrient Database, 1 tablespoon of ketchup contains 19 calories, 154 mg of sodium and 4 gm of sugar, which is not healthy.Eating a high amount of commercially made ketchup can lead to health problems like acid reflux, obesity, heart diseases, kidney stones and more.Thus, it is suggested to look for brands of ketchup whose labels mention low sodium or no salt added, no sugar added and no high fructose syrup varieties.A healthier way of consuming ketchup would be making it at home or swapping it with healthier sauces like hummus or salsa.