I don't tend to shop in Asda much, purely because we don't have one close enough to home to use on a regular basis. However, I recently took a trip to our nearest one recently as I fancied a change.

One of the regular items in my trolley is Tesco Value Ketchup, though obviously the equivilent from Asda is their Smartprice Tomato Ketchup, so thought I woud give it a go to see how it faired against Tescos cheap ketchup.

For the price of just 34p, you get a 500g bottle of ketchup. First impressions of the bottle I have to admit aren't good. As with the Tesco Value one, the bottle is pretty plain, with a quite unappealing label on it. However, I am personally not interested in fancy packaging. I would rather keep costs down on packaging and have the money spent on the quality of the product inside the packaging instead.

When I first poured this sauce out of the bottle, I was pleased to note the texture of the ketchup. It was quite thick, but in the right way. The sauce flowed out of the bottle slowly which is good in th sense that it didn't flow out too quickly so you end up with a mound of ketchup on your plate, but sometimes with this kind of bottle, the ketchup can be so thick that you struggle to get any out at all. However, you get neither problem with this one as the ketchup flows slowly, but doesn't get stuck due to it being overly thick. This has a really nice consistency to it.

Flavour wise, this was really tomatoey and was not at all weak or watery. The statistics claim that this is prepared with 98g of tomatos per every 100g. It is really flavoursome, far more than you would expect due to the price you pay for it.

This ketchup may contain traces or nuts and seeds, for those of you who suffer with allergies. However, it is suitable for vegetarians and contains no artificial colours and flavours, nor does it contain any hydrogenerated fats.

Nutritional Info (per serving)
Protein - 0.1g
Carbohydrates - 4.5g
Fibre - 0.1g
Sugar - trace

Overall, there isn't really much to shout about with the above stats. This doesn't contain much of anything really.

Overall I really liked this ketchup and would happily but it again in the future. Considering it is a fraction of the price of brands such as Heinz and Daddies, this is certainly not far behind in the quality stakes. The two things I look for in a ketchup are a nice texture and obviously a lovely tomato flavour. This has a good texture and a lovely taste to it. The flavour is quite strong, but not too acidic which you can get with some ketchup.

Packaging wise, this ketchup is contained within a glass bottle which is fully recycleable. It stands on its base, rather than the lid as some do, which does mean it can be a bit of a pain to get the dregs out of the bottom. This has a white screw cap lid, which is actually quite easy to get open.

To the eye, this may not look overly appealing, but then the idea of smartprice products is that they save you money, by compromising on the packaging. This is plain and simple, but tells you everything it needs to. It obviously doesn't stand out on the shelf, so you may have to look for it, but I would recommend you try this if you have never done so before, rather than paying a fortune for another product which isn't much better in terms of quality, but for which you pay a premium for the brand name.

Highly recommended.