Our Favorite Ketchup Brand Is Almost Identical To Heinz (And Cheaper)
While Heinz ketchup is an all-time favorite, some other ketchup brands have earned the spotlight, too. One brand in particular is Great Value, which offers a superior tomato ketchup you can grab at your local Walmart. After we evaluated 13 popular ketchup brands, including Good & Gather, Rao's, and Market Pantry, Great Value came out at the top, and not just for its striking similarity to Heinz ketchup.
Both the Heinz and Great Value's ketchup share that same deep red color so that you might mistake one for the other if it weren't for the different bottles and labeling. Great Value's ketchup oozes with a similar thick texture that makes it excellent for dipping your fries. But the taste test is where you can appreciate this bottled ketchup's profile. Sporting a similar ingredients list to that of Heinz's ketchup, Great Value is a no-frills, regular sauce, offering the simple flavors of our childhood favorite.
Furthermore, considering that the idea behind Walmart's Great Value products is to offer affordable and quality food products, the store's in-house ketchup delivers on both promises. At about a meager $3 for a 64-ounce bottle at the time of writing this, Great Value's ketchup costs a mere fraction — at least a tenth, to be precise — of brands like Primal Kitchen's organic unsweetened and Rao's Roma tomato ketchup. It's even cheaper than Heinz! So if it comes down to cost after checking all the boxes for flavor, color, and consistency, you have a clear winner.
It's not just Great Value's similarity to Heinz ketchup that makes it special
There are many reasons to be drawn to other ketchup brands, and rightfully so. If it's a matter of taste, you might favor a brand like Burman's, which sat somewhere in the middle of our ranking. Though Burman's is fruity and easily enjoyable, our taste tester Sara Klimek faulted the ketchup for its lack of viscosity. If for texture alone, perhaps a brand like Nature's Promise would have earned a higher spot. You can even go for a cheap brand and glam it up with some great ketchup additions like horseradish or chipotle paste.
Even a quick look at Rao's ketchup might make you fall in love: six ingredients, of which high-fructose corn syrup isn't one of them. This isn't the case with Great Value or even Heinz's ketchup, and given the health risks associated with high-fructose corn syrup, we can understand why brands like Rao's or Primal Kitchen might make better contenders in other people's view — Rao's even landed the third spot on our list. However, in the end, our Tasting Table taste tester found that the big, affordable bottle of Great Value's ketchup along with its veteran flavors stood undefeated. One of the key things you're after when you use ketchup is volume, after all — a big bowl of dipping sauce for a few bucks is better than a small bottle of specialty sauce for twice that amount.