Demian Repucci content

Heinz has taken the french fry world by storm in the last couple days with the release of it’s new ketchup packet.  Public reaction has been positive to the point of elation.  “Thank goodness I can finally dip my fries!” and  “I am so glad the squirting tyranny is over!”.  Or something like that.  Anyway, I remain unconvinced.

The one thing that the new Heinz ketchup packet has going for it is that it hold three times more ketchup than the old rectangular packets.  The argument being that the new design is much less packaging than the combined material in three old packets.  But I find this to be an odd differentiating logic.  Why not just make the original packets bigger if the need was for more ketchup and the aim was to reduce packaging?

Another issue is recyclability.  The old Heinz packets were made from a combination of plastic and aluminum.  Which, unfortunately, was non recyclable.  The new design now incorporates a plastic tub with what looks to be an aluminum and plastic peel away lid.  Is this a better solution?  The lid would still be non-recyclable and the tub might be too small to be considered of any environmental impact and just tossed with everything else instead of separated out and recycled.  It must also be said that some other company’s ketchup packets are made using only plastic.  Still a recycling problem but at least it is only one material and therefore the possibility of it being recycled still exists. 

As far as design goes the only thing that is of any innovative value on this new packet design is the option the user has of squeezing the ketchup from one side instead of opening up the top to dip.  Other than that it looks suspiciously like the sweet-n-sour and honey mustard sauce tubs McDonald’s gives out with it’s Chicken McNuggets.  Or the jelly packets that accompany the white toast at every diner everywhere.  For my money this new design breaks very little new ground in terms of package design and can hardly be considered an innovation.

A real innovation to me would be for Heinz to figure out a way to make the packet biodegradable.  Does it have to be plastic?  New applications are being developed for corn starch based containers all the time.  Could this have been used?  Or how about making little rectangular paper containers roughly the size of chewing gum?  Maybe a little bigger.  Rip off the top and dip the fries straight down into it.  Or what if the ketchup came in a solid state?  Say, solidified with gelatin into a rectangle or sphere.  It liquefies into it’s typical viscous form when heat is applied.  There could even be an extra cardboard section folded into the inside of a fry container that a solid ketchup ’stick’ is placed into.  The heat from the fries liquefies it and the fry dunking ensues. 

I could go on.  This new package design by Heinz for single serve ketchup may be a step in the right direction.  But to me it just does not step far enough.  There may be a little less packaging to deal with.  But the bottom line is that there will still be unrecycled packaging that ends up in land fills just as before. 

I love ketchup as much, if not more, than everyone else.  But for now I will continue to try, when I can, to stick to using the large recyclable bottles to get my ketchup kicks.  I hope Heinz does not stop with this new design but continues to try to find innovative and less impactful ways to dispense the condiments.