Have you ever gotten French fries for the road only to find that dipping and eating on-the-go is extremely difficult? Well, those days of trying to squeeze packets of ketchup over your fries may be over.
Recently Heinz Ketchup unveiled a new ketchup pack shaped like a shallow cup to make dipping-on-the-go easier. This redesign comes after researchers at Heinz determined that since many of their customers used ketchup in the car, squeezable packets were inconvenient.
Heinz designers found that drivers wanted something they could place on the arm rest so they could dunk and drive without getting ketchup all over their clothes.
While some ketchup and fast food enthusiast may rejoice over this new redesign, I can’t help but wonder about the implications this has for driving safety. Last summer, Exxon surveyed 1000 drivers and discovered more than 70 percent of drivers eat while driving and 83 percent drink beverages while on the road.
These statistics are staggering, considering a 2006 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study shows that 80 percent of car accidents and 65 percent of near-accidents are caused by drivers who are distracted, which includes eating or drinking on the road.
Dunking French fries into ketchup not only forces you to take one hand off of the steering wheel and your eyes off of the road, thinking about getting the perfect fry to ketchup ratio can also be distracting and increase your risk for an accident.
So before you start dipping, you may want to think twice before you bring your French fries to-go in the car. While those piping hot fries and ketchup may be immediately satisfying, they are not worth a potentially devastating car accident.
Here are other foods to avoid while on the road:
1. Hot beverages – while hot coffee or tea may be a great way to start your morning, hot beverages can spill and burn your skin and stain your clothes if you drive over a road bump.
2. Tacos and burritos – these can disassemble easily and turn your car into a salad bar.
3. Wings – messy and sticky, wings can require both hands and lots of napkins which will increase your risk for a car accident.
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