This sounds like a job for the Ketchup Police!

But come on, all ketchup taste the same, right?

Apparently not -- and that's what I discovered in a recent ride-along with the condiment cops.

"We actually do hear about people sometimes refilling ketchup bottles with an inferior brand," said Pam Wigley with Heinz.

Heinz knows their product, and so do their customers.

"Usually like the gentlemen (from KOMO 1000 News) who wrote to us, they can tell the difference," she said.

The plaintiff: John Boril, morning editor at KOMO 1000 News.

"We stopped into a restaurant on the Eastside," Boril said. "When we put the ketchup on the fries, we both had the same thought instantaneously: 'This can't possibly be Heinz Ketchup, the viscosity is all wrong.' "

(Nice Scrabble word, John.)

"It just poured right out of the bottle," he said. "And it's not supposed to do that."

John suspected a fake, and called Heinz. That's when Pam confirmed that the big tomato is watching.

"We have our own little secret ketchup police force out there," Wigley said.

While many restaurants feature Heinz, some re-use the company's trademark bottles, and refill them with something else.

A petty offense? Pam doesn't think so. She says if caught, the restaurants are scolded. And besides:

"You have to think of food safety… and we encourage people not to refill bottles."

As for the secret ketchup police force? "We let all those consumers out there be our ketchup police," she says.

Remember, if you don't have to use a knife to get the ketchup out, call the cops...the condiment cops...where they take their pastey goo seriously.

"It's our icon product," Wigley said. "We just go with the flow."