The Main Problem With Primal Kitchen's Ketchup

We all know the feeling: You're out at a new-to-you greasy spoon or breakfast joint, and a pile of piping hot hash browns or french fries has reached your table. You turn to grab the bottle of ketchup sitting at your elbow, but your heart drops. There's another, unfamiliar brand of the sweet tomato condiment that you just know won't taste the same as what your go-to option. Somehow, in the bizarre evolution of ketchup, the taste we associate with the condiment became tied to Heinz. In our definitive ranking of ketchup brands, Heinz comes out on top. It typifies the balance we look for between tangy acidity from tomatoes, vinegar, and salt and a little sweetness (in Heinz's case, that sweetness comes from high-fructose corn syrup).

But what if you want the same classic ketchup taste without any red flag ingredients on the label? Unfortunately, in our rankings, most organic and unsweetened options fell to the bottom of the list. Primal Kitchen's ketchup, in particular, swerves any sugars or sweeteners so hard that the product comes close to tasting bitter. As a result, our reviewers didn't even finish the dab they started with, which landed the Primal Kitchen offering in last place.

At a minimum, Primal Kitchen ketchup is unique. Out of the 14 varieties we tried, that version was the only product without sweeteners of any kind. As a company, Primal Kitchen prides itself on providing organic, more nutritious versions of popular sauces, spreads, and condiments. But while we support the mission to serve up clean-eating, farm-fresh ingredients, the taste just can't measure up. Our testers also noted that, beyond the obvious lack of any sweetener, Primal Kitchen's ketchup tasted even more strongly acidic than other varieties of an already-acidic condiment. It's unclear if this could be attributed to the fact that Primal Kitchen uses white balsamic vinegar, whereas Heinz uses distilled vinegar. Perhaps the proportions are out of whack for most of the ketchup-eating public.

Even if clean eating outranks nostalgic flavor on your list of priorities, the price of Primal Kitchen's ketchup might be a little hard to swallow. At the time of our ranking, the item cost $7, while other brands offered $3 versions for a slightly larger size. For an organic version of ketchup, our ranking recommends Good & Gather, a Target-exclusive product, instead. But if you're out at a clean-eating brunch spot and Primal Kitchen is the only option, we'd suggest giving it a good mix with another condiment like mayonnaise and adding a little salt to create your own fry sauce. Better that than being forced to eat subpar, unsweetened ketchup.