Heinz Ketchup Packets Get Redesign

The ketchup packet has been around for more than 40 years, and complaints about it for nearly as long: too messy, too small, too hard to open. Now ketchup giant H.J. Heinz Co. is unveiling the first major packaging change to the to-go condiment.

The new design has a base that's more like a cup for dipping and also a tear-off end for squeezing, plus it holds three times as much ketchup than a traditional packet.

"The packet has long been the bane of our consumers," said Dave Ciesinski, vice president of Heinz Ketchup. "The biggest complaint is there is no way to dip and eat it on-the-go."

Heinz has long struggled to find a design that lets diners dip or squeeze ketchup that could also be sold at a price acceptable to its restaurant customers.

The company recently made a solution a top priority. It even bought its design team a used minivan two years ago to give their ideas real road tests.

Eventually, the company settled on a type of film used for meat, cheese and other food packaging to create the device, which it has dubbed Heinz Dip & Squeeze.

Heinz sells more than 11 million cases of its ketchup packets in the U.S. every year and it will continue to sell the traditional packet. The new packet is in test markets in the Midwest and Southeast and will roll out at select fast-food restaurants in the fall.

Heinz is still working out prices with customers but said packets will cost a little more than regular packets.

Will they catch on? It's hard telling, but the news may cheer some ketchup fans like Matt Kurtz, a 22-year-old student who find the problems are as ubiquitous as the packets themselves.

The self-proclaimed ketchup aficionado said it became an issue for him two years ago during a road trip when he opened a packet too quickly and spilled it on his jeans.

"That's when I said 'There has to be a better way'," he said.

He even created one of the hundreds of anti-ketchup packet groups on Facebook, dubbing his "Prop 57" a gentle poke at Heinz, saying it is to "draw awareness" to the packet's shortcomings.

"I really just hope for change, not to steal from our president," he said.