Heinz Ketchup To Use Coca-Cola's Plant-Based Bottle

BOCA RATON, Fla. — H.J. Heinz Co. says it is making its iconic ketchup bottles a bit more green.

The food maker announced Wednesday that it will use Coca-Cola Co.'s plant-based plastic bottle technology for its ketchup.

Coca-Cola said it is the first partnership of its kind and they hope to push the use of its plant-based material into other parts of the food industry.

The world's largest soft-drink maker introduced the new bottle material in 2009. It's made with a mixture of traditional plastics and up to 30 percent plant-based material.

Coca-Cola hopes to eventually stop using traditional plastic, for which oil is a major ingredient.

Heinz said it will roll out the new bottle to the U.S. in June with 120 million bottles and plans to expand it globally.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the licensing agreement.

Heinz said the new material will increase its packaging costs at first but it does not plan to pass along those costs with higher prices.

Heinz and Coca-Cola said it could be the first of several agreements between the two companies, which they declined to detail but said could include work on distribution, purchasing, supply chain and health issues.

Comments

[Pema]

02:18 PM on 02/28/2011

omg..i was just thinking about this as i was cooking dinner last night. my pet peeve is packaging. and i thought tossing my plastic into the recycle bin, there needs to be a plant based bottle but how could they do it? viola! as per usual someone has already done it. fist bump heinz. you have my castup loyalty for life. plus since last election we always buy heinz anyway but now the deals been sealed with a kiss...

[snippylee]

01:05 PM on 02/25/2011

It's a step in the right direction. But we can be doing so much more.

[farmilyman]

11:05 AM on 02/25/2011

Wonderful............not take out the high fructose corn syrup.

[xstevejx]

08:41 AM on 02/28/2011

They did in the 'Simply Heinz' variety...but they made it 33% sweeter, for some reason. It's very noticeably sweeter...which is off-putting, so I went back to the regular variety.

[farmilyman]

10:43 AM on 02/28/2011

If I go out to eat and it's the only thing avalable I use either tabasco sauce or mustard. I only buy organic ketchup that isn't sweetened much for the house.

[eyelashviper]

10:37 AM on 02/25/2011

Ketchup lovers, ditch all that commercial stuff, plastic bottle and all, and buy an organic brand, often still bottled in glass, full of good stuff, no high fructose nonsense, and tastes wonderful!
It is pricier, but unless you consume it by the gallon, shouldn't break your budget.

[naschkatze]

09:14 PM on 02/24/2011

I used to love the old glass bottle. It was a design classic, and although I couldn't afford a Porsche, I could afford a classic bottle of Heinz ketchup.

[BlackYowe]

09:15 PM on 02/24/2011

I am with you I love the glass.

[Tom95134]

08:59 PM on 02/24/2011

Gee, the headline sounded like we were going to be able to eat the bottle.

[ThinkCreeps]

05:17 AM on 02/25/2011

The existing bottle is already more nutritious than the contents.

[raker]

08:13 PM on 02/24/2011

Lose the corn syrup. Heinz Organic ketchup, made without corn syrup, is so much better. It tastes like ketchup tasted long ago before corn syrup made it the texture and flavor of tomato candy.

[EcoCatLady]

04:41 PM on 02/24/2011

Hmmm... I fear I suffer from ketchup conflict. I know it's total garbage, but it's one of the few food vices I have left. Seems to me that it would be easier and more environmental to just put it in a glass bottle though...

[alteredstory]

04:39 PM on 02/24/2011

Good for them!

[Cecilia Trinh]

04:23 PM on 02/24/2011

that's not as important as the fact they still use HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in their ketchup.

[alteredstory]

04:40 PM on 02/24/2011

HFCS can be avoided, and isn't going to bring about a collapse of civilization. Extended use of fossil fuels has the potential to wipe out life on earth as we know it. Do the math - this one's a win.

[Cecilia Trinh]

09:58 PM on 02/25/2011

I agree with the extended use of fossil fuels. I hope we see more of it soon. At the same time yes, HFCS can be avoided by consumers (even though a majority are not well informed of the consequences-but that's another topic), why not get to the root cause and have the manufacturers avoid it also? Ah yes, how can I forget? Then they wouldn't be profitable. Money over health...story of our society...although, I am seeing that it is taking a turn, or am I just being optimistic?

[fredvh]

01:21 PM on 02/24/2011

good for them
but i will still not use their product or and ketchsup
i lived in a town with a heinz plant....and the smell of vinigar and seeing tomatos on the sides of the road year round just made it so i can't use it.

[mamacat]

06:20 AM on 02/24/2011

I find that my brain almost never, ever, stops. Just the other day I was comparing tomato based sauces, and I decided that Heinz makes my all-time favorite ketchup. Now, why in the world would anyone spend any time comparing catsups, you might ask? Well, in the course of more than a few decades here on good ol' planet Terra Firma, I have opened up a lot of ketchup bottles, and more to the point, I have eaten a lot of the stuff, and if I am going to dose my food with ketchup, why not use the one that tastes the best?
OK, I am officially embarrassed now - running over at the keyboard....

[xstevejx]

08:49 AM on 02/28/2011

That's why I've stuck with regular Heinz ketchup...most others I've tried are either too vinegary or too sweet to my palette. I did buy a bottle of Trader Joe's organic ketchup for when my current open bottle runs out, though, as it seemed very close to Heinz when it was on something they were sampling in the store.

[aligatorhardt]

01:40 AM on 02/24/2011

This is the best way to deal with plastic garbage and related pollution, eliminate it at the source. When all plant based resins are used the toxic petroleum chemicals are eliminated and the plant based materials are renewable by farming the plants used. Thanks to Coca Cola co. for moving towards a cleaner packaging.

[masterdaddy0]

05:56 PM on 02/23/2011

While they are at it, they should take out the high fructose corn syrup from the ketchup.

[alteredstory]

04:41 PM on 02/24/2011

Lower priority.

[masterdaddy0]

01:19 PM on 02/27/2011

Definitely not so! High Fructose Corn Syrup is a leading part in this country's ever growing obesity and diabetes epidemic. It's absurd that something like that should be put in ketchup of all things!