Is Heinz ketchup gluten free – YES. Most ketchup brands only use tomato sauce, vinegar, salt and seasoning. But you should still take care as some brands might add ingredients that contain gluten.
NOTE – In general, the information in this post relates to Heinz ketchup being sold in the US. While all of their bottles should be gluten free world wide, we can’t really verify or check every country the brand is selling.
The information here is collected directly from the Heinz website – As long as they provide accurate information, this information should be true.
A pro tip for anyone who avoids gluten is to make sure to check the label of every food you intend to buy and eat.
The good news is that in the US Heinz ketchup is gluten free
Is Heinz gluten free in other countries
Heinz in other countries like Canada for example does not put a GF label because it is their policy to not put a label unless they are 100% certain all the ingredients are gluten free.
In theory all the ingredients are gluten free even in different countries because it’s the same ketchup, but for example the supplier for seasoning might be different in Canada than in the US. So please take note of that.
Ingredients of Heinz Ketchup
Heinz ketchup has three types of ketchup brands that are mostly bought and used:
- Classic Heinz
- Simply Heinz
- Organic Heinz
Their classic tomato ketchup contains:
TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES | DISTILLED VINEGAR |
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP | CORN SYRUP |
SALT | SPICE |
ONION POWDER | NATURAL FLAVORING |
Their Simply tomato ketchup contains:
The main difference between the classic ketchup and simply ketchup is the Simply has sugar instead of corn syrup.
TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES | DISTILLED VINEGAR |
CANE SUGAR | SALT |
ONION POWDER | SPICE |
NATURAL FLAVORING | ORTOMATO CONCENTRATE MADE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES |
DISTILLED VINEGAR | SUGAR |
SALT | ONION POWDER |
SPICE | NATURAL FLAVORING |
Their Organic tomato ketchup contains:
The main differences here is that they use only organic ingredients obviously.
ORGANIC TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE ORGANIC TOMATOES | ORGANIC DISTILLED VINEGAR |
ORGANIC SUGAR | SALT |
ORGANIC ONION POWDER | ORGANIC SPICE |
NATURAL FLAVORING |
Nutrition facts:
If you want to check out all the available varieties, check out Heinz’s official website.
What about Vinager?
A lot of people know that vinager can be tricky because some brands make their vinager from grains containing gluten. However Heinz only uses distilled vinager that is made from corn and not wheat.
Why not all bottles have the GF label?
It’s known that all Heinz ketchup products are gluten free, but not all bottles have the GF label, why is that?
Well, the reason could be that on some bottles they used up more space to add text about ingredients and similar so they didn’t have room, also, each word printed on the label costs money, so maybe they just don’t want to add the label to a product that is already known to be gluten free.
Cross contamination with ketchup
If you are suffering from Celiac disease you should be extra careful about what you eat, espeically when it comes ti ketchup.
The reason is that ketchup is a product that is usually shared with other foods. For example french fries or other fried foods.
So if the ketchup comes into contact with a gluten containing food, you can’t eat that anymore. So be mindful on how you share your ketchup with a group.
Also, even during the manufacturing process of some food items, cross contamination can happen. With bigger well known brands like Heinz it is usually safe to assume that what they say is true as they hold themselves to a higher standard due to size, but that’s not the case with anyone.
To sum up
Heinz ketchup is gluten free and can be safely consumed by vegans, celiac, and gluten-intolerant consumers. However, you should pay special attention to cross-contamination with other foods, especially if you are eating out.
Please also check out our other guides on popular food items like if mustard is gluten free or if tomato sauce is GF in general.