That Little Point Inside Your Ketchup Cap Has a Purpose

Open a new squeeze bottle of ketchup and there are two things between you and the fries: the cap and the plastic seal underneath it. Most people peel the seal off, throw it away, and never give the small pointed piece inside the cap another thought. One simple trick uses both pieces together. Instead of removing the seal, the point can puncture a small opening that gives you more control each time you squeeze the bottle.

The idea changes how you open the bottle before its first use, and it may help keep ketchup from collecting around the cap.

Leave the plastic seal in place

Don’t peel the entire seal from the opening.

Remove the cap and leave the plastic covering attached to the bottle.

That seal becomes part of the trick rather than something you throw away.

Look inside the cap

Turn the cap over and look at the inside.

There’s a small pointed piece built into the top portion of the lid. It’s easy to overlook because once the bottle is open, most people have no reason to examine the underside of the cap.

Use that point to puncture the plastic seal.

You only need a small opening rather than removing the whole piece.

The smaller opening changes how ketchup comes out

Put the cap back onto the bottle after making the hole.

Now, when you squeeze, the ketchup has to pass through the smaller opening in the seal before reaching the cap.

That can give you more control over the amount coming out instead of sending a large squirt across the plate.

It can also reduce the ketchup that spreads around the opening and dries on the outside of the cap.

It starts with how you open a new bottle

The trick isn’t much use after you’ve already peeled off the seal.

That’s what makes it easy to miss. Most of us remove that piece as soon as a new bottle enters the kitchen, so the opportunity disappears before we know it exists.

Next time you open a new squeeze bottle, look inside the cap before pulling off the seal. That tiny point you may have ignored can turn the plastic you’re about to throw away into a simple way to control the squeeze.