'Tomato' ketchup made from carrot pulp being sold in Karachi

A raid conducted by ARY News’ Zimmedar Kaun team along with Sindh Food Authority officials led to the sealing of a ketchup factory in Karachi’s Surjani Town area.

As shown in Zimmedar Kaun’s March 3 episode, the team along with SFA officials raided a ketchup (tomato sauce) factory in Surjani Town area and sealed it due to unhygienic conditions, use of prohibited material and violation of several other food safety regulations.

As the teams raided the factory, they found out that the factory producing tomato sauce and mayonnaise,  is not following the standard recipe to make ketchup as carrot pulp was being used instead of tomato puree to produce “tomato” ketchup.

Ajinomoto (Chinese Salt), a banned product, and acetic acid (instead of vinegar) were recovered from the factory’s premises.

The factory’s owner was not present but the employee guiding the teams was of the view that carrot pulp can be used instead of tomato puree as the factory is not claiming that it is creating “tomato ketchup” but only ketchup.

The labels and stickers recovered however showed that though the ingredient chart nowhere mentions usage of tomato puree but the label clearly says that the product is being marketed as tomato ketchup.

The address of the factory mentioned on the label was of some factory located in SITE area whereas the production unit was in Surjani Town.

Samples were taken and the factory was temporarily sealed.

Another raid conducted at a similar unit in the area saw the owners being fined for producing ketchup and mayonnaise in unhygienic conditions, expired license and fake Halal certification.