In contrast with the strictly high-grade product is the great bulk
of the ketchup found on the market. The material is not whole ripe
tomatoes, but consists of the waste of the canning factory, commonly
designated as “trimming stock,” including the green, moldy, broken,
rotten, and generally unusable tomatoes, the skins, cores, and stems
from the peeling tables, and the surplus juice from the filling
machines, all of which may be allowed to stand during the day and be
run through the cyclone in the evening. At the end of the season, the
frosted and half-ripe fruits may be used. Part of this material can
not be considered “sound fruit” as contemplated by the food and drugs
act. The pulp is put up in barrels, preserved, and allowed to stand,
possibly in the sun, until a sufficient quantity has accumulated for
shipment. Old ketchup barrels may be used and be none too clean. As a
result, it is not uncommon to see an inch or more of pulp in the bottom
of a car at the end of shipment, caused by the blowing out of the
barrel heads from fermentation. The sanitary condition of the factory
may be poor, the handling of the goods be unclean, the spices be the
refuse from the spice houses, the sugar be of the cheapest grade, and
the bottles be only rinsed or be used without even that precaution.
The ketchup is a concoction so heavily spiced with hot spices that the
tomato flavor is lost and might as well be anything else. The color is
normally dirty brown.
Between these two extremes are all grades, those for which whole
tomatoes, unsorted, are used, those for which trimming stock is worked
up promptly during the canning season, and those made from stock of
unknown history. Some manufacturers work under good and some under poor
sanitary conditions. There can be no doubt that with proper selection
and precaution much of the by-product of the canning factory and large
quantities of tomatoes which are unsuitable for canning might be used
to advantage in the manufacture of ketchup; but it requires a nicety
of practice not generally found at this time. The practice sometimes
followed of making some ketchup from whole stock and a large quantity
from refuse and using the former for advertising purposes, only serves
to emphasize the fact that the goods belong to two distinct classes.
One of the uses for a very considerable amount of pulp from refuse
stock is the making of sauce for baked beans and other canned goods
where the true character can not be observed by the consumer.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Another factory interior, showing large pulp
tanks in the rear, cooking tanks on the right, and process tanks in
front containing thousands of bottles of ketchup.]
During the season tomatoes come in at times in larger quantities than
can be made into ketchup promptly. The surplus must be worked up into
pulp for storage and may be stored in barrels or in tin cans. The pulp
stored in barrels will not have as good a color as that put into cans,
and the ketchup made from either will not be as bright as that made
from whole, fresh stock. The pulp put up in barrels is more liable
to spoilage than that put up in cans. The difference in the cost of
storage by the two methods is not very great, and some large concerns
are using the can exclusively instead of the barrel.