A mom took to TikTok to share that she found white particles in a bottle of Heinz ketchup.
TikTok user Laci (@journey_jacksons), who chronicles her family’s adventures living and traveling in an RV, explained that she was preparing a corndog for her daughter when she noticed a white object inside her Heinz ketchup bottle, which she purchased at a Walmart in South Carolina back in September.
She has emptied the bottle into the sink and shows viewers the contents.
“It literally, to me, looks like pills,” she says in her video, which has been viewed over 539,000 times since it was first posted. “I’m freaking out.”
As she pushes the small white objects around with a butter knife, Laci tries to determine what they are by cutting one open on a paper towel. But the TikToker says she isn’t sure as all she can smell is the Heinz tomato ketchup.
“It is not expired. I’ve seen some more chunks in it,” she also notes as she dumps more ketchup into her sink. “Does anyone have any idea what this is?”
@journey_jacksons What is in this ketchup!!! Has anyone ever had this happen? What do I do? #help #isthisdrug #fyp #heinz ♬ original sound – Laci | Journey Jacksons
Like Laci, many viewers were also alarmed by her findings.
“I’m never going to eat again … there is another video going around about Heinz ketchup and it had little worms in it,” wrote one user, to which Laci responded, “Makes me sick to my stomach.”
“I say looks like a larva of some kind,” another user ventured to guess.
But several viewers were quick to assuage Laci’s fears about the small white objects being pills or something else that was dangerous.
“Pills would’ve definitely dissolved with the acid. Probably beans,” one wrote, advising her to still contact Heinz despite the objects likely being harmless.
Beans were a general consensus among many viewers, who cited the company’s production of beans in tomato sauce and possible cross-contamination.
“Heinz makes bbq or baked beans ..could of been just a mix up at factory,” suggested wrote one user.
In a follow-up video, Laci reveals that she is currently in contact with the Walmart where she bought the ketchup and with Heinz, which is working to locate the factory where the batch was produced. Laci also included a response from Heinz which reads, in part, “This is very unusual…” The company also claims that it would be conducting an internal investigation.
@journey_jacksons #heinzketchup #update ♬ original sound – Laci | Journey Jacksons
In a second video update, Laci also stated that she would not be buying from Heinz again, despite Walmart’s offer to send her a new ketchup bottle.
@journey_jacksons Replying to @debroseys ♬ original sound – Laci | Journey Jacksons
“After rinsing it off and cutting it, I’m fairly certain that it is a bean,” she admits in the video, before adding, “Regardless though … it shouldn’t be there.”
Viewers agreed. “As a mom to a child with food allergy, this is why it’s so important for companies to clean good before processing the next batch,” one noted.
The Daily Dot reached out to Laci and Heinz via email.
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*First Published: Oct 23, 2023, 2:33 pm CDT
Maya Wray
Maya Wray is a Fall 2022 FOIA intern for the Daily Dot. She is currently a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies journalism in the Moody College Honors Program. She has written for the Daily Texan and the Austin Chronicle.
