Why Does McDonald's Ketchup Taste So Good?

McDonald's ketchup owes its distinct taste to a simpler list of ingredients that lacks some of the added seasonings of other popular ketchup brands. This results in a ketchup that tastes like sweetened tomatoes, and not much else, because there's not much more to it than that.

Compare the ingredients in McDonald's ketchup to Heinz, one of the more popular ketchup brands. Both ketchups contain tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, and other vaguely-worded natural flavors. For McDonald's, just a bit of water rounds out the ingredients list. But Heinz skips the water and achieves its own distinct flavor profile with onion powder and an unspecified spice.

Ketchup is a pretty basic condiment, and differences like these of just a few ingredients can have a sizable impact on the taste. Appropriately, McDonald's owes the stripped down tomato taste of its ketchup to a simple recipe.

McDonald's is no stranger to corporate relationships, such as its decades-long partnership with The Coca-Cola Company. It also used to have a similar connection to Heinz, which began selling its ketchup to McDonald's in the 1970s. The relationship lasted until 2013, when a corporate acquisition gave Heinz a new CEO, Bernardo Rees, who was also the former CEO of top McDonald's rival Burger King. Unhappy with the closeness, McDonald's terminated the relationship and began producing its own ketchup on an industrial scale.

The McDonald's ketchup recipe may vary slightly depending on the country. For instance, in the U.K., McDonald's ketchup is made with a glucose-fructose syrup instead of corn syrup. But the recipe remains straightforward, in an attempt to hew close to a simple yet satisfying flavor.

McDonald's ketchup may not have the fandom of Whataburger ketchup, which is also a proprietary recipe that the company makes itself, but unlike Whataburger ketchup, which is primarily appreciated for its thoughtful presentation, McDonald's ketchup rallies its fans around a simple, reliable, tomatoey taste.