Welcome to Bad Science on the Internet! Here, we highlight some of the crazy and sometime dangerous stuff people post online,  and then give you the facts.  

The bad science: There is a viral post making the rounds on Facebook claiming that Heinz Katchup is dangerous

What do they claim? They make vague claims that Heinz Ketchup is poisonous and dangerous and maybe even causes cancer

Are they trying to sell you something? Only misinformation as far as I can tell.  Maybe alternative ketchup brands?

Is any of this true?  No. This article was clearly written by someone who doesn’t really understand basic science.  Let’s look at each baseless claim one at a time!

1. It is true that Heinz Katchup is banned in Israel for not containing enough tomato paste.  This is actually the result of some aggressive lobbying by one of their rivals. 
2. Heinz Katchup does not cause cancer.  This is a baseless (and kind of random) claim.
3. OK, let’s quickly tackle the GMO issue.  They are safe.  There is no data

   

   at all to support any other conclusion.  If you don’t want to eat GMOs for ethical reasons, that’s fine (but good luck, they are in everything these days), but the suggestion that they are unsafe is just plain wrong.

4. Corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup are not the same thing.  Corn syrup is the starch (sugar) isolated form corn and is mostly glucose.  High fructose corn syrup is made from corn syrup by using a natural enzyme to convert some of the glucose to fructose.  This is done to make the sugar sweeter, so less needs to be added to foods to produce the same sweetness.
5. The author is correct to assume that the corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup is from a GMO source.  About 90% of all the corn grown in the US is GMO.  The only way to avoid this is to buy USDA certified organic products. Now is the time to remind you that there is no data at all to suggest that food containing GMO ingredients is any less safe than non-GMO food.
6. And, that’s it – besides stating that HEINZ Ketchup contains GMO corn syrup (it does) and making vague claims about GMOs being “dangerous”, the author fails to provide any other reason to avoid Heinz Ketchup.

Is any of this Dangerous? No.

What’s the bottom line? This is a misleading, poorly written, and alarmist article.  Can you get better ketchup with less sugar and more tomatoes?  Sure, and this would probably be a healthier option – not because of GMOs (again, perfectly safe), but because high sugar diets contribute to obesity and diabetes.  I’m guessing, however, that you don’t eat vast quantities of ketchup on a daily basis (or, maybe you do??), so it probably doesn’t matter.  Go ahead and eat Heinz Ketchup, and don’t, under ANY circumstances, share this silly article on Facebook.