The Ketchup Brands You'll Find At Your Favorite Fast Food Restaurants

Fast-food restaurant ketchup just hits differently. Whether you're the type to squeeze out ketchup packet after packet onto your burger wrapper, forming a dippable lake of tomatoey goodness, or you prefer the neat convenience of the groundbreaking Dip & Squeeze packet from Heinz, nothing's better than a hot, salty french fry covered in catsup. However, while quite a few of them do, not every single fast-food restaurant chain uses the same ketchup. As such, you may be startled when you wander outside your normal fast-food rotation to find that your fry-eating experience feels a little "off" — and it's the ketchup to blame.

Maybe you have particularly strong feelings about your ketchup, and you'd rather avoid what you feel to be inferior ketchup brands in the future. Maybe you want to buy the same ketchup you eat at In-N-Out or Five Guys, for home. Maybe you're just curious. Whatever the case may be, these are the primary ketchup brands that you'll find at your favorite fast-food restaurants.

If there's one ketchup brand that has a major monopoly on the restaurant ketchup game, it's Heinz — and for good reason. According to the brand, nearly 80% of U.S. consumers prefer Heinz. As such, you'll find Heinz exclusively served at Five Guys, Burger King, Culver's, Chick-fil-A, Freddy's, Shake Shack, Raising Cane's, Sonic, and Arby's. Other restaurants, meanwhile, may use Heinz on a more limited basis, as is the case at In-N-Out, according to some Redditors. In fact, Heinz is so prevalent in the restaurant industry, that we actually saw a Heinz ketchup shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-restaurant dining was down and take-out and delivery orders were up, requiring Heinz to pump out more and more of its little packets of fast-food ketchup.

So why is Heinz so preferred by so many people? While it might depend on who you ask, reviewers will agree that Heinz ketchup simply tastes like classic ketchup. It's the way you assume ketchup is going to taste, with a blend of sweetness and tang, and a texture that's not too thick, not too runny.

As mentioned, while some restaurants will use Heinz exclusively, others may shake things up by bringing in some other ketchup brands on occasion. Such is the case with In-N-Out, according to Redditors, where you'll also find a much less-popular ketchup brand: Red Gold.

If you're not familiar with Red Gold ketchup, you might be familiar with the Red Gold brand of canned tomatoes. Red Gold got its start in 1942, in Indiana, offering just two products: canned tomato puree and canned whole tomatoes. Now, Red Gold offers a wide array of tomato-based items, from ketchup to juice to salsa and beyond.

With such brand longevity, why isn't Red Gold a more popular option at fast-food restaurants? It might just come down to the sweetness, which some reviewers say is the overwhelming and singular note within the ketchup's flavor profile. When you compare Red Gold's ingredients with Heinz's, you will, in fact, see that, while Heinz ketchup lists tomato concentrate as its first ingredient, followed by vinegar, and then followed by sweetener, Red Gold does the opposite, with high fructose corn syrup following tomato concentrate as the secondary ingredient, and the vinegar coming in third.

While French's mustard, in its bright yellow bottle, may be a more familiar sight, the brand does also produce ketchup, and that's exactly the ketchup you'll find at A&W — well, if you're willing to cross international borders. The Canadian version of A&W, which, yes, is slightly if not entirely different from the American chain, began using French's mustard and ketchup in the last decade. If you've never tried French's ketchup, it's been likened to Hellman's ketchup due to its sweetness, meaning you might find it similar to Red Gold's sweet-leaning ketchup as well. In fact, if you look at the ingredients list on a bottle of French's ketchup, right after the tomato concentrate is the expected sugar. However, French's does stand out from both Red Gold and Heinz ketchup in one key way: French's leaves out the high fructose corn syrup, using actual sugar, instead.

Other than the French's ketchup, what else can you expect when you cross the border to visit a Canadian A&W? The burgers are worth the trip, with a vintage feel and simplistic approach, with seasoned, thin burger patties topped with thin-cut basics on a sesame seed bun (and, you might just find that the ketchup is worth the trip, too).

Much like Red Gold ketchup, Del Monte ketchup can be easy to overlook simply because you associate the brand with another product. In Del Monte's case, the brand is more so well known for its wide array of canned vegetables and fruits. Still, it does offer ketchup and that ketchup can be found at Philippines darling Jollibee.

Another ketchup that puts sweetness at the forefront, with high fructose corn syrup as its second ingredient, Del Monte ketchup receives positive reviews for its low price, though its texture leaves a little to be desired, as it's on the thinner side. That said, plenty of people are eating Del Monte ketchup on a regular basis. When Statista looked at data on ketchup consumption and what brands U.S. shoppers are buying, it found that, while Heinz takes first place in consumer use, Hunt's takes second place, and generic store brands take third place, Del Monte still rounds out the top four most popular ketchup brands in the country.

Lastly, some restaurant brands have decided to forgo the ketchup you'll find on the grocery store shelves altogether, and are making up their own proprietary mix. This is exactly the case at McDonald's, as well as at Whataburger, with the latter definitely building up a cult following around its Whataburger fancy ketchup.

McDonald's did use Heinz ketchup for quite a while but, as of 2013, it ended that partnership and began producing its own ketchup. The differences between Heinz ketchup and McDonald's in-house ketchup are subtle, but still there. McDonald's adds water to its ketchup, and leaves out the onion powder and vague spices that Heinz lists among its ingredients. As a result, McDonald's ketchup is slightly thinner in texture and blander in taste.

As for Whataburger, its fancy in-house ketchup stands apart from some of the others you'll find at fast-food restaurants, as Whataburger both includes garlic powder in its recipe and excludes high fructose corn syrup, replacing it with sugar. Whataburger also rolls out variations on its original ketchup, such as spicy ketchup and spicy ketchup with Cholula. The ketchup has proven so popular that, like Chick-fil-A, Whataburger has begun bottling its sauces for retail sale.