Ketchup (also catsup, tomato sauce or red sauce) is a condiment. Traditionally, recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, mussels, or walnuts, among other ingredients,[1][2] but in modern times the unmodified term usually refers to tomato ketchup.


In the 17th century, the Chinese mixed a concoction of pickled fish and spices and called it (in the Amoy dialect) kôe-chiap or kê-chiap (鮭汁, Mandarin Chinese guī zhī, Cantonese gwai1 zap1) meaning the brine of pickled fish (鮭, salmon; 汁, juice) or shellfish.[6] By the early 18th century, the table sauce had made it to the Malay states (present day Malaysia and Singapore), where it was tasted by English colonists. The Indonesian-Malay word for the sauce was kecap (pronounced "kay-chap"). That word evolved into the English word "ketchup".[7] English settlers then took ketchup with them to the American colonies.[1]

The term Ketchup was used in 1690 in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew which was well acclaimed in North America.[8] The spelling "catchup" may have also been used in the past.[9]
Ketchup is a sweet and tangy sauce typically made from tomatoes, sweetener, and vinegar, with assorted seasonings and spices. The latter vary by recipe, but commonly include onions, allspice, coriander, cloves, cumin, garlic, mustard and sometimes celery, cinnamon or ginger.[3]

The market leader in the United States (60% market share) and United Kingdom (82%) is Heinz.[4][5] Hunt's has the second biggest share of the US market with less than 20%. In much of the UK, ketchup is also known as "tomato sauce" (a term that means a fresher pasta sauce elsewhere in the world) or "red sauce" (especially in Wales).

Tomato ketchup is most often used as a condiment to various dishes that are usually served hot and may be fried or greasy: french fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, hot sandwiches, meat pies, cooked eggs, and grilled or fried meat. Ketchup is sometimes used as the basis for, or as one ingredient in, other sauces and dressings, and the flavor may be replicated as an additive flavoring for snacks like potato chips.