Henry J. Heinz started breeding our tomatoes in 1934, helping sow the seeds of the unique varieties we grow today. Our tomatoes are redder, thicker and tastier than any you'd find in a supermarket. That's what gives our ketchup the unmistakable Heinz flavour.

The ketchup that comes out of the bottle is only as good as the tomatoes that go into it. Ours are grown in sun-drenched places like California and Spain, by farmers with generations of experience. Naturally, they're all GMO-free. How can we be sure of the best quality? Because our Heinz Tomato Masters - the world's leading ketchup tomato experts - monitor every stage of their growth to make sure each tomato is as good as it should be.

PLANTING - Our tomatoes come from all over the world, but they're all grown in irrigated fields to deliver just enough water, without wasting a drop.

HARVESTING - Patience makes perfection. Our tomatoes develop their sweetness and taste naturally on the vine, before we pick them at their peak.

Our fields are close to the tomato paste plants. That means we can process our tomatoes within hours of being picked, to lock in their precious flavour. We check our tomatoes twice to make sure we only put the best into our ketchup. Anything less than perfect goes into livestock feed and compost. Next, we flash-cook the tomatoes at 96°C - the perfect temperature for releasing their full flavour.

EXTRACTION 


We strain the tomatoes to get all their thick, juicy pulp, keeping aside the seeds and skins for feed.



EVAPORATION


Next, we remove the water from the pulp to make a tomato paste that's even thicker, sweeter and tastier than before.

TRANSPORTING TO KETCHUP FACTORIES


We heat-treat our tomato paste to seal in flavour and keep it fresher for longer. Then we transport it to our factories, ready to be made into ketchup.

MAKING AND BOTTLING


Three extra ingredients and our special blend of spices - that's all it takes to turn our tomato paste into rich, delicious Heinz ketchup. After bottling, we make sure our ketchup pours at no more than 0.028 mph - guaranteeing its unique texture.

Henry J Heinz was a visionary game-changer. His values still remain true today across everything we do seeking to make quality food for people, and continuously looking for ways to improve and innovate to meet emerging needs of our consumers. At Heinz we believe in minimising waste to reduce the impact on our environment.

Our unique tomatoes grow abundantly on the vine, helping us get more from our fields, save water and cut down on waste.

Anything that doesn't go into our ketchup gets used in feed, compost or fertiliser, to help grow the next delicious crop.

Through our development projects, we share tomato expertise and conservation ideas with farmers around the world.