A Ketchup Shortage Is Affecting Restaurants Across the Country

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Individual ketchup packets are in high demand — and suppliers can’t seem to keep up with it.

“We’re busy doing everything we can,” Steve Cornell, Kraft Heinz’s president of Enhancers, Specialty and Away from Home Business Unit, told theWall Street Journal.

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Retail sales for bottles of ketchup also soared over the past year, jumping over 15% compared to condiment sales in 2019, according to data from Euromonitor.

And ketchup is not the only food to be facing shortages during the pandemic.

Not only are the prices increasing, but the demand for pepperoni has been highly outweighing the supply. Othermeat products (like ground beef) were experiencing similar shortagesearlier this year, but all are recovering aside from pepperoni,Bloombergreports.

There are reportedly two main reasons for the current pepperoni shortage. First, pork processing plants have had to reduce worker numbers to adhere to local social distancing guidelines, making it more difficult to produce the meat in a timely fashion. Second, the demand for pizza has risen significantly during the pandemic as people are ordering in more.

source: people.com