Fake Heinz ketchup bottles explode in New Jersey warehouse

It sounded like the perfect business plan: buy wholesale bladders of regular ketchup, but squeeze it into smaller bottles of an all-natural, healthy brand of ketchup, thus tricking some health-conscious suckers into eating high-fructose sweetener. But apparently no one told the Heinz ketchup counterfeiter that you can't leave food in a hot warehouse. And so, one day tenants in a Dover, New Jersey building noticed a lot of flies. They discovered an abandoned building filled with rotten ketchup, insects and exploded plastic, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

Heinz company officials say that someone purchased normal Heinz Ketchup and transferred it from the large bladders to the individual bottles labeled "Simply Heinz," a premium variety of Heinz made with sugar instead of high fructose corn sweetener. "Based on our preliminary investigation, it appears that the unauthorized operation purchased traditional Heinz ketchup and then repackaged the product illegally," a Heinz spokesman told ABC News. 

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But the ketchup counterfeiter then abandoned his operation, leaving the ketchup's sugars, acid and vinegar to ferment in the heat and explode. Heinz is now distancing itself from the abandoned crime scene and told the Star-Ledger that the repackaging ketchup operation was "illegal."

Jessica Jackson, a spokeswoman for Heinz North America, also added that none of the fake bottles made it to store shelves, according to ABC. But maybe stay on the safe side and avoid buying any "Simply Heinz" ketchup with a bottle that has a mysteriously indie, d.i.y look to it.