Here is why Soviet government banned ketchup

There were many different sauces in Soviet stores. However, ketchup was not among them.

Moreover, it was even banned and removed from all cookbooks. FoodOboz explains why this happened.

How and when did ketchup appear in the USSR?

Ketchup first appeared in the USSR in the second half of the 1930s. It was in 1936 that the then People's Commissar of Food Industry Anastas Mikoyan traveled to the United States on Stalin's orders. There he got acquainted with the popular food products of this country and bought the production technology.

It was thanks to this trip that the Soviet Union began producing canned food, semi-finished products, bread, ice cream, champagne, mayonnaise, sausages, condensed milk, corn flakes, ketchup, and much more.

Thus, the Glavkonserv enterprise of the USSR Ministry of Food Industry became the sole supplier of ketchup to the Soviet market. The company had to launch a large-scale advertising campaign, as the country's population was very wary of ketchup.

Why was ketchup banned?

Soon ketchup became a very popular product and almost every housewife used it. However, they enjoyed it for no more than 5 years. Its production stopped in 1941, immediately after the German attack, as ketchup was not considered a basic necessity.

And after the war ended, its production was not restored because of the so-called Cold War, as a result of which the United States first turned into an adversary and then into an enemy. Of course, in this situation, selling products of American origin in the USSR was considered mauvais ton.