The Best Idea Yet - 🍅 Heinz Ketchup: The King of Condiments | 33

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

When entrepreneur Henry J. Heinz went bankrupt after his first venture, he nearly lost it all—his farmland, his parents' home, and his own reputation. But then, he launched a stunning comeback that changed everything about the meaning of the name “Heinz.” This Master of Tomatoes built a condiment empire on super fresh produce and, by pioneering food safety standards decades before regulations existed. (Hint: it involved unleashing a team called the Poison Squad… and no, that name isn’t metaphorical.) Heinz battled exploding bottles and cheaper competitors to build a $35B empire that endures today. Learn why Heinz is in 97% of American homes, the strange origins of that number 57, and what Teddy Roosevelt had to do with America's favorite tomato topping. Here's why Heinz Ketchup is the best idea yet.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the best idea yet early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Jack, I'm going to need you to help me whip up some culinary justice. Okay. I'm going to give you some big questions over here and you need to tell me food crime or food fetish. Okay, Nick. Is this combination a guilty pleasure or a flavor felony? Now, this is just for me personally.

Yeah, it's just for you personally, but you know, you are speaking to society right now. You have a microphone, you've got an influence. All right, hit me. Pineapple on pizza. Food fetish. Peeling chicken nuggets before you eat them. That is all I did as a kid, food fetish. Olive oil on ice cream. Food crime. Fruit as a dessert. Food fetish. All right,

but what about this one, Jack? Ketchup on a hot dog. Food fetish. Who doesn't want ketchup on a hot dog? I think it depends on your age. You kind of mature out of that one once you turn 13, don't you? Do you? I didn't get that memo. Today we are talking about the king of condiments that also changed everything about food safety, ketchup. Specifically, Heinz ketchup. Did you know that ketchup is found in 97% of American households?

That is product penetration we've never seen before. Or did you know that Heinz specifically sells over 650 million bottles of ketchup every single year? That's almost two bottles for every American every year. Today, the Kraft Heinz Company is one of the largest food and beverage brands in the world, with a market cap between $35 and $40 billion. That is more than General Mills. It is three times more than Campbell's, and it is ten times more than General Mills. It is three times more than Campbell's and it is 10 times more than Wendy's. But let's be real, hold the mayo in the mustard.

Ketchup is Heinz's holy grail condiment. But Jack, that recipe didn't just appear in a bottle one day. It was the brainchild of Henry J. Heinz, a young entrepreneur who struck it big, hit rock bottom and then built himself back up again. And in the process, this guy developed a ketchup that disrupted the entire food industry.

The story of how Heinz ketchup went viral includes the first ever electric ad and an intervention from President Teddy Roosevelt. It involves exploding ketchup bottles and Heinz nearly bankrupting his entire extended family. Plus a radical chemist who led a group called the Poison Squad. We're also gonna give you the real story behind that mysterious number 57 that's on the Heinz label. It's one of the smartest tricks in the history of marketing.

And we're gonna connect Heinz ketchup to a Kendrick Lamar distrac. Jack, can you smack the sides of that bottle over there? You're supposed to tap the bottom, I think, not the sides. Yeah, we'll get to the bottom of that by the end of the show. Here's why Heinz tomato ketchup is the best idea yet. ["The Best Idea Yet"] ["The Best Idea Yet"]

From Wandery and T-Boy, I'm Nick Martell. And I'm Jack Kraviche Kramer. And this is the best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. And the bold risk takers who made them go viral. We got it coming to you. I got that feeling again. They changed the game in one move. Here's how they broke all the rules. This episode of The Best Idea Yet is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Amazon.

Shopping on Amazon is one of the easiest ways to streamline your shopping so you can get time back to do the things you actually want to do, like listening to this podcast. Save the everyday with deals from Amazon. Thirloyne steak, check. Potatoes, check. Green beans? Check. It's 1869 and you're in a local market in Pittsburgh shopping for Sunday dinner. As you stroll outside and look through your basket you suddenly realize you forgot the condiments. As you turn back around

you run smack into a 25 year old kid with small mutton chops on his cheeks, mop of hair on top, and an oversized bow tie. He bobbles a glass bottle in both hands and then writes it just before it crashes to the ground. That kid is Henry, Henry J. Hines, the very guy whose name would one day become synonymous with ketchup, but not quite yet. At this point in our story, he's got stains on his apron and holes in his shoes.

And his very first product, it's horseradish. He holds the clear glass bottle to the light and tells you to peer into it, as he explains that his horseradish isn't like his competitors. They use filler ingredients like, get this, wood chips and leaves. Oh, that's what that taste is.

And then they hide the truth with an opaque green or brown bottle so you can't see it. But Henry makes you a promise. His product is pure and unadulterated. There's nothing to hide in his clear glass bottles. And I'm curious. I'll keep listening, Jack. Then he goes full Glengarry Glen Ross and hits you with the second selling point. His product will give you your time

back. You won't have to grate it yourself at home. No more bruising your knuckles or having your eyes tear up from the strong smell. Interesting angle here. A horseradish whose value proposition is saving time. One less thing to worry about. And you certainly don't want to feed your family wood chips. So you take one of Henry's bottles. It's the first Heinz product you've ever tried, but it certainly won't be the last. Henry is the oldest of eight children in a German immigrant family. His mom is a devout religious woman who's filled her kids like mason jars with strong moral values. She is

big on mantras like, do all the good you can. Do not live for yourself. Really, this whole family is big on hard work and doing the right thing. That's their style. Henry's been selling produce from his family garden since he was nine years old, like a young Martha Stewart. With seven other siblings to help support, he's got the work ethic down. He's also living up to those high moral standards. He's only 25 right now, but he sees the food industry landscape and he knows that there is something wrong with it. Like, he's not exaggerating when he says that wood chips and leaves are ending up his filler in the food products. And that's not even the worst of it. Big food manufacturers are also tossing chemical preservatives into everything, like copper sulfate

to make canned beans look greener and fresher, adding formaldehyde to sour milk to make it taste sweeter. Jack, I believe the term for this is food crime, as we were saying before. Exactly. But Nick, can you sprinkle on some context of the time here? This is the 1860s. It is decades before the government intervenes and regulators get involved in the food industry.

The Food and Drug Administration that we all know today, it isn't even established for another 50 years. There's no nutrition facts on the labels. There's no federal health standards to worry about. Saturated versus unsaturated fats? Jack, forget about it. The balance of power at the time lay with business, not with the consumers. Now policy experts today, they would call this information asymmetry. Jack and I, we call it the wild west of Worcestershire sauce. Henry doesn't think consumers should

be misled like that. He literally calls his horseradish, which actually began as his mom's recipe, pure and superior to all the others on the market. Henry's also strategic at this young age. He has recognized a target customer better than most VC pitch decks do today. He's particularly in tune with housewives who want more convenient food options that don't take all day to prepare, but they don't want convenience at the cost of the health and safety for their family. Henry's Pure and Superior Horseradish, it's a great start to this strategy. And he thinks to himself,

hey, maybe there's something bigger here than a single root vegetable. So here's what Henry does. He meets up with his Pittsburgh buddy, L. Clarence Noble. By the way, always a sign of money if you're just going by the first initial on this thing. Also a sign of money if your last name's Noble. Yeah, well his last name Noble does align with Henry's devotion to moral values, but it might as well be short for nobility too, because Mr. Noble happens to be pretty,

pretty, pretty wealthy. So Henry asks him, hey, you want in on this horseradish venture? I got moms lining up the block at the nearby market just to refill their jars. Absolutely, he says. He grabs his brother and they tap their family's trust fund. In 1869, the trio found Heinz Noble and Company, incorporated in Pittsburgh, PA.

Their hero product is their horseradish, but they eventually expand across the garden, adding pickled cucumbers, sauerkraut, vinegar, and this popular creamy celery sauce to their product line. If you're serving sausage in Pittsburgh, odds are it's complemented by something that these guys are selling. But Jack, here's where Henry really gets ahead of his time. He insists on creating a brand. Now he's not the first person to do this, but he is right on the cutting edge. At the time, there's Jim Beam, the bourbon, and there's Arm and Hammer, the baking soda, but nothing much else. Henry even beats Pillsbury to the branding punch. Again, we're a few years after the Civil War here, and in food history,

brands didn't really exist yet. Food tended to be sold wholesale to grocers pretty much by the barrel. Everything you bought at the store was a commodity. There weren't Quaker Oats on the shelf. There were simply oats. But here's Henry's thinking. He wants people to realize the superiority of his product and he wants them to associate it with his brand and then come back time and time again. So he starts with the packaging, knowing that the package will help create the brand recognition exactly His name is literally on the line, but because he's got that brand association

He's even more of a stickler for quality control if any of his horseradish goes bad There's an obvious person to point to Heinz so he pioneers Inventory control methods that were ahead of their time, like first in first out, to ensure he's turning product around before it's gone bad. Or Jack, how about this one? Henry tells the grocers that if they notice any early signs of mold, he, Henry, will buy back that spoiled product to avoid the bad rep. That is a high standard for excellence. And all of this plays out beautifully for Henry. He and his partners are one of the fastest growing companies in the city.

To expand their business, they take out loans. And over the next few years, they make enough money to buy a hundred acres of farmland, two dozen horses, 12 wagons, even a whole vinegar factory in St. Louis. And they start to expand nationally. But just as Henry is hitting his stride and disrupting your dinner, it all comes crashing down. Because in 1873, the Depression arrives. Aren't we a little early for the Great Depression?

Yeah, we are, we are, we are, man. But this is actually the first Depression, the one called the Long Depression. Now, unless you studied econ history, you don't typically read about this one, but this Long Depression is gonna shatter Henry's bottled goods dreams. Henry and his partner Clarence are making a deal

with a farm out in Illinois. They wanna buy cucumbers and cabbages, but the farm will only sell to them if they agree to buy cucumbers and cabbages, but the farm will only sell to them if they agree to buy the entire harvest. Now, it's 1875 at this point, and in any other year, that's not a huge issue. But the long depression is affecting everyone, and no one is shopping for anything beyond the essentials. In that economy, you're not spending your paycheck on a premium brand.

But Henry knows people have to eat, and at least his company is offering shelf stable foods. So he does some back of the napkin math to estimate the Illinois harvest, and then he tells Clarence, sign the deal, we'll be fine. As Warren Buffett says, be greedy when everyone else is fearful. So Heinz gets greedy during this moment of economic fear by purchasing an entire harvest. But then the long depression, it only gets worse. Keyword long depression.

From Carnegie steel mills to the Pennsylvania oil fields, it seems like the whole country grinds to a halt. Henry's got product piling up in his warehouses and spoiling before he can even move it. And he's struggling to make weekly payroll. Oh, and Clarence is blaming Henry for overextending the entire company. By the fall, Henry is hanging on by a thread. He's got a wife and two kids at this point, plus all his employees to think about. He's strained and he's exhausted. He's just trying to keep the company afloat.

Well then, Jack, of course, the cucumber and the cabbage crop numbers come in and the harvest is huge. It is way more than he and Clarence expected. And simply put, there's just not enough money to pay for all of it. So Henry begs the local banks in downtown Pittsburgh to help him. When that doesn't work, he turns to friends and family for loans. His dad, Mr. Hines, mortgages his own business plus the family home to raise money for his son's venture. Henry is grateful, but he's also concerned. If he goes down, everyone's coming down with him. So Henry desperately is trying to right the ship here,

but as 1875 comes to a close, he's just got to face the facts. He is $50,000 in the red and there is no way to raise the cash. He has no choice and Henry Hinds files for bankruptcy. For Henry, this feels like the bottom of that proverbial pickle barrel. You've got to lay off hundreds of employees. His horses, his wagons, his farmland all get auctioned off. And his parents' house and his dad's business, they get put up for sale. Friends and neighbors who lent him money turn their backs on him when they see him in the street.

Even Clarence turns on him, publicly blaming him for the company's failures. Henry just can't even bear the shame of it. He and his wife change churches so they don't have to face everyone in the pews. Not that Henry's even going to church because he is so depressed, he stays in bed for weeks. Honestly, Jack, out of all the stories we've covered, I don't think there is a single entrepreneur who has lost so much as Henry Hines did in this moment. The only thing he still has is his health. his health. On Christmas day, still in bed, not a present in sight, Henry writes this in his diary. A man is nowhere without money. It is hard to lose trade, money, friends and reputation,

and even parents in trouble. I am more blamed because I did the financing. I mean, Jack, that just says it all. It's like a Dickensian tragedy. He is having more than just a rough holiday. But thankfully, Henry's family doesn't turn on him like everyone else does. It's actually the opposite. On New Year's Day, 1876, the Hines family calls a family meeting. The adults get together in the family living room. They light a fire and they announce they're going to help Henry rebuild his company. His brother John and his cousin Frederick pitch in the equivalent of about $86,000 in today's money to get it back off the ground. This family, they're not cutting their losses. They're doubling down. Henry feels indebted to them, but he also feels motivated.

He runs around the room hugging and shaking hands, swearing to each and every family member he is going to work harder than anyone they have ever seen to make up for all of this support. Henry Hines has learned a whole lot of lessons from his company's fall. This time, he's going to avoid debt at all costs. No bank loans, no Hines bond issuance, just equity financing. If he doesn't have the cash to do something, he's not going to do it. Fair. And he's going to personally oversee every aspect of the business.

Henry calls it soil to customer, essentially vertical integration. Meanwhile, Henry gets a $125 salary to run the company. $125. That's roughly $3,500 today. Not exactly a major CEO's pay. But Henry, he's willing to take the hit. He'd have nothing without his family. And so he's determined to get it right this time. He starts carrying a notepad with him at all times labeled MO, as in moral obligations. It's a callback to his mother's teachings to always live a moral

life. And in this notebook, he makes a list of how much he owes every single Heinz and Noble creditor. He's going to pay them all back first, and then, then he can take the company to new heights from there. Now, legally, he doesn't have to repay those debts. They were all wiped away in the bankruptcy. But practically, he does need to work with these suppliers again if he's going to succeed with this new business. And morally, he still owes them, which leads to his new goal, become solvent within the next four years.

We should point out that is a way easier said than done. Everyone in Pittsburgh, they know about Henry's bad luck and bad credit, and they are hesitant to work with him ever again. But Henry, he stays the course, and he focuses on basics. Vinegar, sauerkraut, and pickles. This time he doesn't want to get too big too fast. But Henry's a dreamer, a doer, and he just can't help himself. He hasn't told anyone this yet, but there's another product tempting him that he thinks will change everything. It is risky, it is a little funky, but if he does it right, he might just become the king of condiments.

Okay, so back before the bankruptcy and that vulnerable diary entry, Henry had actually been playing with the idea of tomato catsup as his next big thing for hearns. Jack did say catsup, not ketchup, because back then, catsup was the popular way to say it. The exact origin of the word, it's a little murky. Now it is possible this came from the Chinese word kutsup, which translates to seafood pickle juice, which sounds delicious.

Point is, Henry sees an opening in the market. Most catsups cost between a dollar and three dollars per pint, which at the time is several days pay for most Americans. But Henry thinks he can beat that price point and offer something at the mid-tier range. He's also thinking that he can just flat out make a better tasting version.

The ones that are on the markets already, they're usually made of rejected tomato trimmings and waste, and then they're dyed with coal tar to make them look bright red. Tar is how they dyed the ketchup. What's the result of that crazy concoction known as catsup at the time? A catsup full of seeds, lumps, and not fresh at all. But consumers are okay with it, because they don't know any better.

There's never really been a unifying flavor of ketchup. Henry himself even experimented with a walnut ketchup first. But Henry's got a competitive advantage. Super fresh tomatoes. In fact, he literally breeds better varieties of tomatoes to maximize their ripeness. Because the riper the tomato, the higher the levels of natural pectin it has. And that is the complex carb that naturally aids in preservation. But it is smooth.

And that combo of consistency and taste, it means Henry is actually able to sell it with the 50% markup. But remember, Henry is building a brand. So he does one more thing to make his product stand out on the shelf and demand that premium price. He uses the far less popular name for the condiment. He calls it Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Ketchup, he did it! But Henry's biggest challenge yet wasn't creating the perfect recipe. It's stopping it from becoming a ticking time bomb that could shatter his restored reputation, literally. As a contractor for the NSA, Edward Snowden had access to a range of top secret government programs.

But as he learned more about these clandestine operations, he came to understand a devastating secret. The government was conducting mass surveillance on its own citizens. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud.

In our latest series, whistleblower Edward Snowden changes the national conversation about privacy on the internet as he risks his own freedom and his family's well-being. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondry+. You can join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today. So our man Henry Hines has just introduced his tomato ketchup to the market. And just like his horseradish a decade earlier, he's using clear glass bottles to prove he's

not got anything to hide ingredients-wise. Although we should point out we can't say the same for his competition because they are still using opaque bottles to cover up the fillers and chemicals and tar in their products. And nutrition labels ain't a thing yet, so consumers don't punish the competition for using chemicals and, again, tar. Even though people, children, are dying because of chemicals added to their food, like formaldehyde in milk.

Not everyone's aware that the food they're buying from the store is the culprit here. But business is all about timing. And luckily for Henry, a new Pure Foods movement is afoot in the United States, and people start calling on their representatives to make some regulations. And Henry's thrilled about that. He believes fighting for Pure Foods is the right thing to do. It also happens to be good business. For him, it's a win-win. He sees the future of food safety and he knows it's better to get on this train now rather than to try to play catch-up. And we see smart CEOs do this in other industries all the time. They get ahead of the regulators.

Didn't car makers basically do the same thing as well? They added seat belts voluntarily, knowing that the laws would require them soon. Well, a century earlier over at Heinz, Henry is about to double down and commit early to that same idea. And around this time, he hears about a French scientist named Louis Pasteur, as in pasteurization, like the pasteurized milk that's in your fridge. Yeah, that, Louis. So Henry establishes a sanitization process in his factories that's like a century ahead

of its time. And Jack, these factories were already pristine enough to lick the ketchup off the floor. But then Henry goes next level. He has his workers heat all the containers to 240 degrees to kill any microorganisms before even packaging the products. There's a lot of costs associated with that kind of move. There are. But he's banking on consumers giving him credit for it. Well then he kicks things up another notch with another

really expensive idea. Providing employee changing rooms and clean uniforms so that employees don't bring their contaminated commuting clothes into the factory. Okay but Jack this is my favorite one. Heinz even starts offering an on-site manicurist. What? You can get like a mani-pedi for free at the ketchup factory. Because he doesn't want dirty nails packaging that celery sauce. Other companies don't want you to see how the sausage gets made. Heinz is the opposite.

He is setting an example, a new standard of sanitization, and doing so voluntarily. But Jack, we know that disruption requires technology. And what is his new technology? He embraces refrigeration. Scientists are saying that chilled foods last longer without pumping them with chemicals. Same goes for new vacuum-sealed can technology and jars that are just hitting the market. He'll take advantage of any method that lets him sell more products by lasting longer, especially if they don't require chemicals.

Henry Hines is boiling bottles. He's providing clean worker uniforms. He's giving them showers. He's shellacking cuticles with free manicures. I mean, his upfront costs are way more, but he is banking that all of this will pay for itself in higher sales. And what do you know, man?

Customers start flocking to the Hz brand because they trust the products. You know who else is suddenly giving Henry the time of day? All of his old creditors. He promised that he would pay them back even though the law didn't require him to. And by 1879, he manages to do just that. That's right. Heinz wins back their trust and he's completely out of debt one whole year ahead of his self-imposed deadline.

So let's do a little annual financial report for Heinz Inc. 2.0. After four years in business, he's now got 200 employees and his annual sales are around $6 million in today's money. It's enough that in February of 1885, nine years after relaunching the company, Henry is finally released from bankruptcy. And now with his slate clean, this Pittsburgh dreamer has an even bigger vision. Henry stares out the window at New York's limestone buildings as his train barrels through the city.

He's taking in the passing billboards and thinking about work, like always. Even though he's solved his financial problems and he's got a great new product, he still wants more. By his own account, Henry is a workaholic who struggles to turn off for the day. The trauma of his early bankruptcy still haunts him. If you start talking to him about the weather,

he's thinking about how that will affect vinegar prices. Just then, he does a double take and focuses on one of the billboards in particular. It's an advertisement for 21 Styles of Shoe. Something about it makes Henry lean in. He wants to know what all 21 styles are. He's run through as many styles of shoes as he can come up with in his head.

Okay, there's the steel boot, the wingtip, the Oxford, Crocs been invented, yeah. But he falls short. What else has the shoe company dreamed up? That number 21, it sticks with him. It's just so imperfect that it's perfect. It generates this sense of curiosity. And that is the ideal example

of how specificity sells. When Baskin Robbins later boasts about having 31 flavors, there's just something alluring about it. It's so particular, it implies it's curated, tested, trustworthy. Exactly the values that Henry has scripted in the book of morals he carries in his suit pocket. He starts thinking about numbers. He makes over 60 products by this point. But 60 doesn't sound as cool as 21 does. No, Jack, that's too round. So then he lands on it.

What about 57? 57. OK, Jack, was 57 the number of tests he'd done, the number of relish recipes he sent to the focus groups. It's actually even simpler. Five is his lucky number and seven is his wife's lucky number. That's good enough for Henry. Five, seven. By the time he hops off the train, he rushes to his offices and tells his marketing department he's got a new slogan for the team. 57 varieties. Within a week of that fateful train ride and seeing that life-changing billboard, Henry has his new 57 varieties slogan on every can, package, and newspaper ad.

And the response? They make 57 different things? These guys, they must definitely know what they're doing. It is so specific, it must be thoughtful. Heinz will actually keep pumping out that slogan for over a century. Open your fridge, look at the bottle that's in there, you'll see the number 57 right at the top.

57 varieties might be Henry's most famous marketing idea, but it's not the only one that he scribbles down in that little black entrepreneurial book. He starts placing ads on the side of streetcars alongside railroads. He even goes national with his advertising campaign to put a huge five-seven sign on the hillside in San Francisco so train passengers can spot it from the window. Henry personally helps design New York's first electric billboard at 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue. That's what a pioneer he was in marketing. Now yeti, Henry goes even further.

He also buys an entire pier in Atlantic City and sets up a giant Heinz exhibit. This whole thing is entirely free. And after its first year, the publicity gives Heinz a 30% sales bump. Over the next 46 years, this museum draws in an estimated 50 million people. This level of heavy advertising helps create brand recognition that his competition is too far behind to even taste. He knows that if you're in the store and you have to decide between two ketchup brands, you'll go with Heinz because you actually know the name. But Henry's marketing isn't the only forward-thinking aspect of his business plan. This whole time, he's still been trying to crack the code on preservation,

and he needs to get on it before it explodes. Literally. The Midwestern sun beats down on the concrete as the sounds of young kids playing make-believe fill the air and sing. Paul, Minnesota. 12-year-old Emma Setley and her friends are messing around in an empty lot doing whatever kids did before iPads because this is 1903 after all. Emma spots ketchup somewhere on the ground. This isn't a Heinz bottle, it's some other brand. She picks it up and shakes it because that's what kids do. And that's when it explodes. The bottle shatters, glass ricocheting and hitting Emma. Her friends see her, covered in a red substance, and everyone screams.

Now, Emma is pretty seriously injured from that bottle. Blas gets stuck in her hand, her wrist, her leg. Thankfully though, she's okay in the end. The story shows up in newspapers across Minnesota. And it's not the only incident like this. There have been reports of exploding bottles for years now. The fermentation process of ketchup had the potential for gas to build up and cause bottles to explode. And there was still no FDA or FTC around to deal with

this. But when our man Henry Hines sees the story, he's particularly interested. Now, with stories of exploding bottles scaring the public, he sees another opening in the market. He can both increase his profits and increase the health of the nation if he could just crack the code to a safe chemical-free ketchup. He's thinking there must be some sort of highly acidic formula that will kill all the bacteria and also crucially won't explode from fermentation. So Henry tasks his research lab with finding a solution for a shelf stable chemical-free ketchup.

His researchers tinker with the sugar, the vinegar and the spice levels, and they feel like they're right on the cusp of a breakthrough, but they just can't quite figure it out. They promise Henry he'll have a solution to the preservation issues soon, but it can't come soon enough because Henry's about to get a visit from the Poison Squad. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and

doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, and each week on my podcast, in doctors' offices. Horror stories and mysteries. Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts. A group of young men, all dressed in three-piece suits, take their seats in a Washington, D.C. dining club. Trays of meat, dishes of creamy butter, and pictures of milk are all laid out atop neatly pressed white tablecloths. A perfectly normal dinner setting, except for the sign that hangs on the wall that says,

"'Only the brave dare eat the fair.'" Perhaps it's the sign, but the men hesitate as they reach for their food. They know this isn't any old dinner. This is an experiment, one they all signed up for when promised three square meals a day and $5 a month to participate. But now that they've had a few of these dinners under

their belts, some of them might be rethinking their choices. Because the food is making them sick. On purpose. They glance to the front of the room, where a stern-looking man in his 60s watches them intently. His name is Dr. Harvey Wiley, a zealous chemist who cares about nothing as much as he does food safety and regulation. So naturally, he's poisoning these men with food preservatives. This is The Poison Squad. It is the turn of the century, and back in Pittsburgh, Henry's heard all about Dr. Wiley and this poison squad he's running.

Wiley got 12 volunteers whose food he systematically poisons to see how their bodies react. It's a human trial that would 100% be illegal today, but the standards for human trials didn't even start getting talked about until the 1940s. So Dr. Wiley, he's just plowing right ahead. He probably believes he's doing something moral here. He's sacrificing the health of 12 men in order to eventually protect the health of millions through better understandings of chemicals and their impact on human health. And Jack, the very first preservative that's up on the menu over at the poison squad, you know what it is?

Borax. Yeah, it's borax, commonly found in cleaning solutions and enamel glazes. Anything that ends in racks, by the way, probably not going to be good for your body. Once they eat it, the poison squad gradually starts experiencing vomiting, headaches, uncontrolled trembling, and trouble focusing. Wiley moves on to salicylic acid, then boracic acid, benzoic acid, potassium chromate, carbonate of soda, formaldehyde and benzoates. I don't know why they're even doing the test.

I could have told you right now that this is going to make you feel good, Jack. It's that last one though that he's trying to get lawmakers to ban first. It also happens to be the preservative of choice for the entire ketchup industry. Without benzoates, ketchup sours and the bottles explode. So obviously, no ketchup producer is supporting Wiley's efforts. That is, except for Henry Hines. He's been following Wiley's work, and he sees a macro change coming too. The public is more aware of what they're putting in their bodies and what's making bottles of ketchup explode. If consumer trust in the food supply drops, it's going to cost a lot more money down the

road to win that trust back than it would cost to just improve the food itself today. It's actually a pretty clever cost-benefit analysis he's doing here. And Henry's already working on his preservative-free ketchup back in the condiment laboratory in Pittsburgh. True. Finally, his researchers actually figure it out. This new version has no preservatives, but it does require a lot of high quality tomatoes to compensate for that. And those tomatoes have to be carefully boiled, and then you add twice as much salt, sugar,

and vinegar as your usual ketchup. Henry's new ketchup formula is good for society, but bad for the margins. And that's why Henry's competitors ain't into this new, safer process. But Henry is thinking 30 years down the road again. He's taking another epic risk that he believes will pay off long-term. The morally correct, pure product

isn't the cheaper beat-em-to-the-punch price offering, but he hopes he can justify his higher prices to his consumers. And bonus, if his competitors have to change their manufacturing techniques, then they'll lose money trying to catch up. This is when Henry pulls a move worthy of a Kendrick Lamar disc track. He launches a blitz on the rest of the industry with the biggest marketing move since the invention of the billboard.

The focus of his marketing campaign, attack ads. Yeah, Heinz just starts ripping on his rivals. He takes out a two page spread in the Saturday evening post. It literally reads in block letters, warning, the US government says Benzoate of soda in foods produces injury to digestion and health. Then he starts advertising to local grocers, calling on them to get rid of any of the chemically preserved foods

before the government starts confiscating them. This guy is just on the offense, man. It's full Kendrick. And the government never actually confiscates food, like Hein says they will. He just makes this all up to mess with his competition. Yeah, Jack, this is a really interesting move by Henry and an insight into his personality.

On the one hand, he's a moral man who spends years devising a novel recipe for preservative-free ketchup for the better of everyone's health. He's got a book of moral values in his jacket pocket right there. But he's also totally fine tricking the public with a really early example of misinformation.

Now, the rest of the ketchup industry isn't just going to roll over. They fight back. They even go so far as to call up the President of the United States for support. They say that Henry is lying about his preservative-free ketchup recipe, that it's impossible to do it the way he says he can. And if they're forced to go down this road, it'll ruin the ketchup industry forever. Heinz is killing ketchup. Regardless of what other ketchup manufacturers say,

Heinz's new extra thick preservative free formula, it's a fan favorite. By 1907, he's selling 12 million bottles a year, shipping all over the world from London to Antwerp, Sydney to Bermuda. This is what you're putting on your burger. Okay, but get this. The next year, Teddy Roosevelt has to personally get involved. The president puts together a board of scientists who find that benzoates are harmless if consumed in quantities of less than half a gram per day, which unless you're showering each morning in ketchup,

you're not gonna consume. So it looks like this wasn't even a risk at all. But the damage was already done by Heinz's ad campaign. Americans don't wanna risk the preservatives. So when they're shopping, they reach for Heinz. It is one thing for a brand to become synonymous with a generic product like Kleenex for tissues, but it's something else entirely

to make consumers actually think all your competitors are dangerous. And the rest of the industry is eventually forced to change their ways. In 1906, finally, the government passes the Pure Food and Drug Act, prohibiting the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs. It's the foundation for the FDA. Finally, America's first food regulators. Now, unfortunately for the rest of the manufacturers, they're a little late to the packaged food party. By 1905, Heinz is the largest producer of ketchup in the US by far.

By 1915, most ketchup's on the shelves are preservative free, but Heinz had the head start and had already firmly planted its flag as the dominant brand. Okay Jack, do you remember that episode of Mad Men? People don't ask their children to pass the ketchup. They say, pass the Heinz. Well sadly, Henry Heinz didn't live much longer after he solidified total dominance of the ketchup industry. In 1919, he died just six months short of his 75th birthday. But Heinz ketchup is still king. A century later, in 2020, over 197 million Americans used Heinz. Henry Heinz was a pioneer in so many things. Food free from chemicals and fillers,

transparency as a marketing strategy, creating a brand out of a single number and misspelling your product to make it stand out on the shelves. Today, unless you're a connoisseur of artisanal Ketchups who's trying to cause a rift in their family, when you go to the store, statistically speaking, you're picking up a bottle of Heinz. Now that we've heard this story on Heinz Ketchup Jack, I got to ask, what is your takeaway?

It's not necessarily about being better. It's about being different. From going with the K spelling of ketchup to the 57 variety slogan, to the pursuit of higher quality ingredients, Henry succeeded by choosing options that were different and that set him apart by also being better. But we should point out being different is a risk like your style could be rejected by the marketplace or by the people around you. But creating a new category and being the only person in that category is the best way to stand out. Stop competing, start differentiating. What about you, Nick? What's your takeaway? Okay, Jack, my takeaway is the best investors are living in a world five years ahead. Henry Heinz was building for the world he believed would eventually come,

not the world that he was currently living in. And we saw this when Heinz invested in a brand. He thought the world of commoditized food would end, so he slapped his label on the product with that name. And he did this when he eliminated preservatives and filler from his ketchup. He knew customers were moving towards foods without a ton of preservatives and that government regulations would soon follow. Looking five years ahead, let him be a market leader. And then it was more expensive for everybody else to catch up. And now it's time for my personal favorite part of the show, the best facts yet. The crazy facts, hero stats, and little details that we just couldn't squeeze in today's

episode, but we couldn't leave you without. I'll kick it off. Heinz recently debuted a remix machine. It's like a freestyle soda dispensing machine, but with sauces. So customers and restaurants can mix their own flavors in, like jalapeno or smoky chipotle, into the ketchup. Heinz gets to use the data from these machines to see what customers want for future flavors. In fact, that's how Heinz got the pickle flavored ketchup that they released in 2024. Here's another

one. Heinz even made a special Mars edition ketchup using tomatoes grown on Earth in Mars-like conditions. It was all to show the possibility of long-term food production on Mars. Heinz, come into a local Mars grocery store near you. And that, my friends, is why Heinz tomato ketchup is the best idea yet. Coming up on the next episode, the subject I've been most looking forward to this entire show. Bust out your flip flops and your floral button down, we're sinking into the story of the Tommy Bahama beach chair. Follow the best idea yet on the Wondry app, Amazon music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to every episode of The Best Idea Yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. The Best Idea Yet is a production of Wondery hosted by me, Nick Martel, and me, Jack Kraviche Kramer. Our senior producers are Matt Beagle and Chris Gaultier. Peter Arcuni is our additional senior producer. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan, and Taylor Sniffin is our managing producer.

Our associate producer and researcher is H. Conley. This episode was written by Alex Burns. We use many sources in our research, including Atlas Obscuras When Every Ketchup But One Went Extinct by Sam Lynn Sommer and H.J. Hines, a biography by Quinton Skrabeck. Sound Design and Mixing by Kelly Kramaric. Fact Checking by Erika Janek. Music Supervision by Scott Velazquez and Jolina Garcia for Freesan Sync. Our theme song is Got That Feelin' Again by Blakalak.

Executive producers for Nick & Jack Studios are me, Nick Martel, and me, Jack Ravici Kramer. Executive producers for Wondery are Dave Easton, Jenny Lauer Beckman, Erin O'Flaherty, and Marshall Lewy. In the first half of the 20th century, one woman changed adoption in America. What was once associated with the shame of unmarried mothers became not only acceptable but fashionable. But Georgia Tann didn't help families find new homes out of the goodness of her heart. She was stealing babies from happy families and selling them for profit. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of the Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud, and in our latest series, a young adoption worker moves to Memphis, Tennessee and becomes one of

the most powerful women in the city. By the time her crimes are exposed, decades later, she's made a fortune and destroyed hundreds of families along the city. By the time her crimes are exposed, decades later, she's made a fortune and destroyed hundreds of families along the way. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today.