Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100617/0714119863/dailydirt-you-say-ketchup-i-say-catsup.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100617/0714119863/dailydirt-you-say-ketchup-i-say-catsup.shtml fish sauce and somehow evolved into the much more widely-consumed condiment we know today. Early recipes of ketchup contained sodium benzoate -- which was banned in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. That ban led to other formulations which contained vinegar as a preservative and used ripe tomatoes. Here are just a few more fascinating factoids about this tangy, thixotropic, tomato-based foodstuff.

• MIT researchers have developed LiquiGlide -- a non-stick coating that could let people get every last drop of ketchup out of a bottle easily. Anticipation is no longer making me wait.... [url]
• Malcom Gladwell is famous for (among other things) his talk on spaghetti sauces and the discovery that customers want a spectrum of choices when it comes to spaghetti sauces. But ketchup seems to be the exception to the rule because there's just a single dominant brand -- and there are far fewer than 57 varieties of it. [url]
• Should ketchup count as a vegetable in school lunches? The tomato sauce on pizza may not count as a vegetable serving according to mothers and the USDA, but it might for some politicians. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100617/0714119863 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110908/23434515858/dailydirt-nicer-packaging-stuff-we-eat.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110908/23434515858/dailydirt-nicer-packaging-stuff-we-eat.shtml

It took three years to develop a successor to the ubiquitous ketchup packet. Maybe they should have also designed ketchup dispensers for mini-vans that just attach to the back of the headrests. [url]

Someday kids won't know what a cereal box is -- because cereal will come in bags? And while cereal makers are trying to improve their packaging, how about making those bags compostable, too? [url]

Compostable packaging is supposed to degrade. This seems like a job for Mythbusters, but it would take some patience to verify that a SunChips bag actually decomposes over 13 weeks. [url]

To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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