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Comment by HisNameIsTor | Hacker News Reader

[in the USA]

Here in Sweden, the most popular brand isn't Heinz, but Felix.

https://www.felix.se/app/uploads/sites/33/2022/03/220209_Fel...

When I lived in a small village in Sweden, you couldn't get anything but Heinz or Felix. I don't think I could even get something like Coop store brand ketchup unless I traveled the 50 km to the city.

Felix's website^ says "Sverige har världens högsta konsumtion av tomatketchup" (Sweden has the world's highest consumption of tomato ketchup), though it doesn't say per capita or in total... I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter. Sure! Let's put ketchup on spaghetti! On pizza! Why not!? :)

^ https://www.felix.se/om-oss/en-svensk-mathistoria/

When I was a kid in Sweden in the early '80s I watched an educational film on TV about tomato ketchup containing carmine - red food colouring (E-120, natural red 4) made from crushed cochineal bugs.

I've never come across an actual tomato ketchup brand that contained food colouring. Did that even exist anywhere?

Really? The Austrian Ketchup brand? Ha, I though that's just in Austria.

Probably a different Felix. The Swedish Felix was started in and is based in Sweden. Although it's currently owned by a Norwegian conglomerate.

edit: Felix Austria is a daughter company of Felix Sweden, founded by the same Mr Felix a couple of decades later.

Looking at the felix.se and felix.at websites, it seems that probably Felix Austria was created in 1958 to serve the Austrian market. The Swedish website says Herbert Felix (a Czech immigrant to Sweden) started making pickles in Sweden in 1939. They use basically the same logo, and they are both owned by Orkla, so I suspect that Felix AT was a spin-off at some point to serve the Austrian market specifically.

Nope, apparently it's the same Czech/Austrian Herbert Felix who founded the brand in Sweden then brought it to Austria[1].

Now I'm itching to try the Swedish Felix and see how it compares to the Austrian one.

Also TIL that: "Sweden has the world's highest consumption of tomato ketchup, and Felix is by far the biggest brand, almost twice as big as its nearest competitor."

Why do Swedes eat so much ketchup?!

[1] https://www.orkla.se/brands/felix/

sounds more the other way round, Austria also gets the Swedish Felix brand.

You're right, he founded the Felix brand in Sweden first then brought ti to Austria later.

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