Heinz ketchup has an official starting speed

Yes, you read that right.

Heinz’s famous glass bottle – the one we’ve all shaken, banged and begged to cooperate – is designed with surgical precision: the ketchup must flow at exactly 0.028 miles per hour (about 0.045 km/h, for those of you in the metric system). Any faster and it fails quality control.

Why is that? Because Heinz wanted the product to feel thick, quality, and not watery, but also not sit in the bottle forever like gourmet cement.

Such a fine balance that they had to define an official pouring speed.

And that 30° pouring angle is no coincidence: it’s the optimum point for the ketchup to start flowing.

Expert tip: if you ever use a Heinz glass bottle, gently tap the number 57 engraved on the neck. That’s the sweet spot where the brand recommends applying pressure.