That's because you don't live in the US. Here in the US, corn is subsidized up the ass and therefore its cheaper to use HFCS than sugar. Obviously, this motivated companies to use it in just about anything they can. It's in almost everything now, including things like soda, sauces, condiments, chips, crutons, virtually anything that might have used sugar at one point. In some things you might not be able to tell the difference in taste but in things like soda (and probably ketchup) it makes a huge difference.

Americans can buy a regular soda and then go to a mexican grocery store and get the soda that is in the old-looking bottles. Do a blind taste test, it's a big difference.

i'd like to state, on the record, that i also checked the ingredients, and can verify tippler's findings. a little garlic being the missing ingredient wouldn't really surprise me - in my opinion, it tastes like maybe a combo of that and vinegar concentration.

Does the bottle ketchup have a generic listing of "spices"? If so, that could make up for the 'missing' garlic powder.

OMG! I thought I was the only 'Ketchup Freak' out there, I get teased so bad for it. My sister always tells people I'd chew my arm off up to my elbow if I had a drop of ketchup up there....

I work at a food cold storage shipping plant. we ship out orders to stores, gas stations , mom and pop stores and resturants all the time.. we have a dry dock that stays roughly at 74F most the time.. but never below 68F.

We carry two brands of ketchup.. big lake and hinez

big lake only comes in a 6/10# can case.. hinez comes in 6/10# cases, also we have 1000/9gram packet cases, 1000/7gram packet cases, and some heavy as hell little box you hook up a pump to.

I can say that we order palets of this stuff every few weeks .. a full pallet takes about 4 months to completly make it vanish. so yeah it ages. it was ageing before we got it forever how long then from 1 to 4 months after that.. then when ever it gets used by a customer of a business.

so yeah taste varies on shelf life.

Sugar, there is more in the packets, tastes better.