UNDATED (CNN) -- A new kind of bottle liberates ketchup! No more slow poke pour, no more assault and battery on a bottle.
Who among us hasn't been guilty of assault on a ketchup bottle? But has technology finally caught up with ketchup?
Our long national nightmare is over. Mechanical engineering students at MIT have come up with a super slippery coating that makes anything from ketchup to mayonnaise practically leap out of a bottle coated with the stuff.
They call it "liquiglide." Adam Paxson says, "It works on everything we've tried so far; glass, plastic, different plastics metal."
Sure there are techniques, ranging from the Goodfellas bottle roll to the Heinz 57 trick and gently slap it on the sweet spot where the 57 is imprinted near the neck.
But Liquiglide could make all those tactics obsolete. The idea is to apply the coating during bottle manufacturing, student Dave Smith says it's totally non toxic. He says, "This is stuff that people eat in some foods. it's perfectly safe."
They've already applied for a bunch of patents.
Dr. Kripa Varinasi and his students are already talking to bottlers and food companies. We asked the folks at Heinz if they were in contact with the Liquiglide inventors but all they would say was "we love the idea of making it easier to pour out Heinz ketchup."
despite rave reviews, there are traditionalists. One person says, "I don't feel the ketchup would have the same satisfaction if it just poured out quickly."
They already have a slogan: "Liquiglide. Let it slide." No more banging with shoes or mallets or sucking up ketchup.
For traditional bottles, Liquiglide could mean their last gasp no more.