Heinz ketchup turns to stevia

Food manufacturer Heinz has announced plans to reduce the amount of sugar in its popular tomato ketchup.

Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars will harbour less sugar, namely 11.4% per 100g, down from 22.8% per 100g in its traditional product.

Added salt will be reduced from 1.8% per 100g to 1.3%.

Replacing some of the sugar will be the use of stevia, a Latin American plant which has incredibly sweet leaves.

Stevia extract has as much as 300 times the sweetness of sugar and has been used by Coca-Cola and Danone.

The plant has been spotted in at least one Algarve market.

Come 15 September, at least in the UK, the new Heinz ketchup will replace Heinz's "Reduced Salt & Sugar" ketchup, which has 25% less salt and 30% less sugar than the standard brand.

Katharine Jenner, campaign director for Action on Sugar, said of Heinz's new product: "At 11.4% sugar it is far lower than most other commercially available ketchups, which are around 25% sugar. This just shows that huge reductions can be made in everyday foods.”

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