Heinz Ketchup Canada just launched a petition to tackle a significant issue that many food lovers can't understand: Why is the number of buns and hot dogs always mismatched?
"Hot dog wieners come in packs of 10. Hot dog buns come in packs of 8. WHY?!" asked Heinz Ketchup Canada on their online petition. "As the condiment that has been bringing foods together for over 150 years, we've decided enough is enough. That's why we started the Heinz Hot Dog Pact. We're calling on Big Bun and Big Wiener companies to find the answer to this hot dog packaging mismatch, once and for all. We need your signatures more than ever. Let's change hot dog history together."
So far, 1,359 have signed the online petition on change.org. Many signees support Heinz's efforts to finally settle the score regarding the popular food item.
"I'm signing this because eating those last two hotdogs on sandwich bread is soul-crushing and bad for my mental health," said one petition signer. Another petition signer commented, "I'm old as dirt, and this has been an issue since I was a young whippersnapper. It's time to change things! Even out the bun to weiner ratio."
While the petition has picked up steam, the conversation does lend itself toward a bigger question: What's the real reason why there isn't an even hot dog to bun ratio during packaging?
The National Hot Dog Sausage Council (NHDSC) has the scoop.
"When hot dog buns were introduced, hot dogs were sold in varying quantities at the butcher shop. Not until 1940 were hot dogs packaged the way we currently see them in the grocery store. When manufacturers began packaging hot dogs, they chose the 10 to the pack formula. Today hot dogs are sold most often in eight or ten to the pound packs, but some are sold other quantities as well," the NHDSC said.
"Sandwich rolls, or hot dog buns, most often come eight to the pack because the buns are baked in clusters of four in pans designed to hold eight rolls. While baking pans now come in configurations that allow baking ten and even 12 at a time, the eight-roll pan remains the most popular," the council continued. "However, to save you from the bread aisle arithmetic anxiety, you need to purchase five bags of eight-to-the-pack buns and four 10-to-the-pack hot dogs to break even."
Also, the NHDSC, established in 1994, stated that even though they're called "hot dog buns," these same buns are "often used to hold sausages, which come in their own unique quantities."
NHDSC has a working relationship with other popular food brands such as Tyson Foods, Land O' Frost, and Bar-S Foods, to name a few.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a severe shortage of ketchup packets due to the stay-at-home orders that were enforced at the beginning of quarantine. According to a new study from Statista, 197.92 million Americans used Heinz ketchup in 2020.
