A closer look
Primary schools across France completely banned the unrestricted use of ketchup in their cafeterias back in two thousand and eleven, heavily restricting the popular condiment strictly to days when the students are served french fries. The government implemented this incredibly specific dietary law purely out of a deep-seated cultural fear that an excessive reliance on sugary American tomato paste was actively destroying the refined culinary palates of the nation's vulnerable youth. French officials view the appreciation of traditional, subtle gastronomy as a fundamental pillar of their national identity, and they firmly believe that smothering a delicate piece of roasted chicken in high-fructose corn syrup is essentially a culinary hate crime. It perfectly illustrates the wildly different cultural priorities of global travel, where one nation's absolute favorite fast-food dipping sauce is legally treated by another country as a highly dangerous threat to their historical societal infrastructure
