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It could alleviate so many face-palms this weekend: a non-stick ketchup bottle conjured by gastro-nerds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may hit supermarket shelves – for other condiments – as early as next year.

After taking home third place with a public vote at the Design Museum's annual competition this week, the non-stick bottle coating – termed "LiquiGlide," unfortunately – is once again on the table.

Engineers at MIT invented the non-stick coating "to help the sauce slide out," writes The Daily Mail's Nick McDermott: "Angrily thwacking the ketchup bottle to coax out the stubborn sauce could soon be a distant memory."

LiquiGlide is a tasteless substance that can be applied to the inside of glass or plastic bottles so their contents, be it mustard, mayo or ketchup, slide out evenly, versus malevolent globs landing on your burger. According to the inventors, one million tonnes of condiments get tossed around the world every year because they can't be wringed out. They suggest up to 15 per cent of the product remains lodged permanently in its container.

Although the technology won votes at the design awards in London, some readers defended their finicky Ketchup bottles: "Aw man, smacking the bottle was part of the fun and a national institution," wrote one Daily Mail commenter named "angryman, London."

Indeed, Ketchup's viscosity has long been its selling point, as Friends star Matt LeBlanc learned in this retro Heinz ad. (Tagline: "The best things come to those who wait.")

Until LiquiGlide becomes a consumer reality, the Internet offers some tips: Apparently caterers invert the bottle and tap the upper neck with their index and middle fingers, no doubt looking like utter fools. For the rest of us, a swift thwack at the bottom usually yields something.

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