Why is Tommy K so hard to get out of the bottle?
We all bang the bottle to get the last of the ketchup out, but why is it always difficult to get it onto our plate? Here, scientists looked at the viscoelastic qualities of tomato paste, that means the stickiness, thickness and how much it clings to the bottle! Two different types of tomato were used, imaginatively named H-282 and H-282F. H-282 is the variety we all buy in the shops, while H-282F is lower in polygalacturonase, which means the fruit ripens slower.
Unsurprisingly, the thickness was related to the tomato solids content, the way the tomato paste was processed and tomato variety. However, this still does not explain green ketchup! Top science.
[Valencia, C. et al. (2004). Influence of tomato paste processing on the linear viscoelasticity of tomato ketchup. Food Science and Technology International 10, 95-100.]
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