Do you refrigerate ketchup (catsup) or keep it out on the counter?

What is a ketchup?

Refrigerate

The sugar free Ketchup or Catsup is kept in the fridge.

Preservatives keep them safe.

Ketchup is vinegar-based and does not need refrigeration, even after a month from being opened.

However, mold can form on the cap (and not very regularly, inside). If you have ever lived in a hot, humid climate, you'll know how quickly things turn when left out.

I put a lot of things in the refrigerator from when I lived in the South. Also keeping food out is just an attraction for bugs and roaches.

So for me, it's in the fridge - along with the mustard and probably 20 other things that don't technically need refrigeration.

I'm in way over my head.

You don't need to ketchup in the fridge.

R7 You should have sugar in ketchup?? Wut

Remember when the Carly Simon song Anticipation was used for the ketchup commercial? How much did she make from that?

People think butter needs to be in the fridge but it does not.

Look at the label. Catsup should always be refrigerated after opening.

She's still anticipating her residuals.

We refrigerate anything that has been opened.

This thread has the potential to end with switchblades and stabbings.

You could cut the air with a knife!

[quote]What is a ketchup? —Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham

I have no idea, Angel Lady Raisin

I like it better cold, so I refrigerate it.

In my cupboard...where it belongs!

Still trying to play ketchup, OP?

Refrigerate. I use it only maybe once a week (if that), and so there’s no point in having an ugly bottle of it sitting out on my counter taking up space.

R18 You keep it in your cupboard after it's been opened? For how long?

I refrigerate both. I like the taste of them cold.

sugar isn't an all purpose antibacterial. It has to be high levels of sugar. Very high levels (like honey)

Regular maple syrup (the real stuff) , which is full of sugar can grow mold on it if it's not refrigerated

I just finish the bottle off once I open it

Until it’s done, r21. In all of my living life I have never had any issues with ketchup going bad...including when I lived with my family. We never refrigerated ketchup...never! Last night I had Five Guys for dinner and I used the ketchup in my cupboard and packets...I love ketchup!

In a restaurant it's probably not staying out too long, a bottle gets used up in a couple of days.

Salt isn't actually an antibacterial either but it is used in dry cured meats like salami to reduce the moisture below levels that bacteria can grow. Acid is the main way to preserve food in packaged food. My grandmother never kept mayo in the fridge, commercial mayo has preservatives and acidity to keep it from spoiling. I wouldn't go that far myself though. If someone gets sick with unrefrigerated sandwiches it's not the mayo, it's probably the meat. Don't try it with homemade mayo, if anyone actually makes that.

R27 Grandma didn't keep mayo in the fridge?? Maybe Miracle Whip or some imitation but real mayo has eggs in it. What a bacteria-laden paradise!

I never put ketchup in the refrigerator and it has never gone bad.

R25 you had five guys for dinner??

I think restaurants refrigerate it overnight and put out while they are open.

R28 Did you even fucking read what I wrote, what a smucky cunt.

Do you think restaurants and fast food places keep those little packets in the refrigerator?

No, r33, they do not. But they're sealed. So they're safe. Bottles of ketchup aren't refrigerated at the store, either.

Yes, and it's not going to go bad either way.

How hard is it to put it in a fridge?

Restaurants refill their ketchup bottles daily so the stuff at the bottom of the bottle is "who knows how old"

I use ketchup so rarely that I store it in the refrigerator, where on earth would I store it otherwise.

My Hunts Ketchup says "For best results refrigerate after opening".

Why? If it’s not necessary, r36...unless you like cold ketchup. Why is this so hard?

NEVER in the fridge!

Who wants to put cold sauce on a hot burger and fries?

I'm pretty sure my dead father was a serial killer.

If you ate half a cup of Haagen-Daaz ice cream, you'd be consuming fewer grams of sugar than you would eating 5tbsps of ketchup.

R38 It is necessary since it can get mold

Again, r42, I have never had that problem with mold, because I actually use ketchup not just as a sauce, but to cook certain dishes.

I refrigerate mine, but I'm not fanatic about it. When I've had to switch over to a new refrigerator after the old one stopped working, I threw a lot of food away, but not the catsup or mustard. My refrigerator is actually larger than necessary for my needs, so it a;so serves as extra storage space in my tiny kitchen.

....

Ketchup can be left out for 1 month. This is why restaurants can, and often do, leave them out on the table. If you don't use ketchup often, refrigerate.

Banana ketchup can be left out indefinitely because it contains sodium benzoate, a preservative that used to be in tomato ketchup until Heinz decided on a naturally preserved recipe.

R41 : well it's a good thing that one of them is a condiment and not something you would scoop into a bowl.

Diner ketchup skeeves me out. All the grubby hands that have touched the bottle...

[quote]Diner ketchup skeeves me out. All the grubby hands that have touched the bottle...

And yet you'll stick a dick in your mouth and eat out an asshole!

In the fridge.

I keep mine in the cupboard.

Ketchup is vile, and is not allowed in my house. I keep my mustard in the fridge, though.

After opening, mine go into 'fridge ...humm .... no I woner if that's needed..