ONLY IN ISRAEL IS HEINZ KETCHUP NOT KETCHUP- ACCORDING TO OSEM

Seth J. Frantzman As seen on Face Book

In Israel, if you can’t beat them in the free market, go petition the government to just say they don’t exist. In Orwellian ruling the Health Ministry has decided that Heinz Ketchup is not Ketchup.

Yes, that’s right. The brand that is synonymous with Ketchup and was founded in 1869 has been told in Israel it cannot label itself Ketchup because an Israeli brand founded in 1942 wanted to use bureaucracy against it.

Under the petition Osem “argued that the Heinz ketchup does not contain enough tomato paste to be considered ketchup under Israeli regulations.” This is because the “standard” for tomato paste in ketchup in Israel is set at 10%.

I wonder, who helped set that standard? I wonder who lobbied for it? I wonder what connections there might be between local corporations and how that arbitrarily became the standard, conveniently when the competitor has less than that.

What’s next Israel? Maybe only Israeli mineral water is “water”, only Israeli-made mustard is “mustard” and, well this already happened, Israeli-chocolate is “chocolate”….

Yes, yes, the French tried doing this with products. But in their case, at least, they were the originator of the product (or at least had claims to ancient origins and traditional production)…so soon we will hear Mexican Tequilla is not tequilla, only Israelis make tequilla…only Israelis make beer…blah blah…and don’t forget Hummous and Falafel, the “national dish”…and Knafeh…Mansaf…all of these surely only made in Israel, the Arabic ones probably should not be allowed to be called “hummous” but rather “chickpea paste.”

Oh…yes

But I’ll say one thing, I’m a consumer. And Israelis can tell me that Heinz isn’t ketchup…but I’m sorry Israel…it isn’t 1984. I know what ketchup is.